SteelOrbis Shanghai
During the first half of 2008, Hubei Province-based Wuhan Iron and Steel Group produced 10.71 million mt of iron - up 55.44 percent, 11.25 million mt of steel - up 54.79 percent, and 10.61 million mt of finished steel - up 58.08 percent, all compared to the same period of last year. Meanwhile, Wuhan Steel has also achieved increases in sales revenues and profits for the period in question, up 89.78 percent and 20.48 percent respectively. All the abovementioned figures constitute record historic highs.
In January-June 2008, Wuhan Steel faced significant difficulties and challenges, especially in terms of the cost pressure caused by the price increases of iron ore, coal, transportation and oil, which all together contributed to a total cost increase of over RMB 10 billion.
In the first six months of 2008, Wuhan Steel strengthened the supply of its steel plates for applications such as bridge steel, heavy rail steel and container steel. During the same period, Wuhan Steel supplied materials to the second pipeline of the West-to-East Gas Transmission project, to the Central Asian Pipeline project and the Southwest Pipeline project. In addition, the strong position of Wuhan Steel's silicon steel products has been reinforced. Meanwhile, production targets for several high-end products such as steel wire cord and high-strength cold heading steel were exceeded, making a strong contribution to Wuhan Steel's historically high results for the first half of the current year.