News Room - Steel Industry

Posted on 09 Mar 2010

Maanshan Steel Says Chinese Prices Are Around Breakeven Levels

Maanshan Iron & Steel Co., the second-biggest Hong Kong listed Chinese steelmaker, said prices in China are trading around breakeven levels.

 

“At present, the steel prices are around the breakeven levels,” Chairman Gu Jian Guo said today in an interview in Beijing. “We’re having a small profit margin. It’s unlike what others have imagined that steel is very profitable.”

 

Chinese steel prices have gained 1.7 percent this year, while Nomura Holdings Inc. forecast that iron ore costs may surge 70 percent. Steelmakers in China, the world’s largest maker of the metal, are also struggling as the government fails to curb overcapacity.

 

“The economy is surely turning better, but there’s still a lot of new capacity coming on,” Gu said. “It’s hard to predict steel prices.” The company’s profit in the first two months is better than a year ago, Gu said, declining to give details.

 

Maanshan Steel dropped 0.4 percent to HK$4.94 at 12:29 p.m. in Hong Kong trading.

 

There may be 50 million metric tons of new steel capacity this year in China, rival Angang Steel Co. said March 5.

 

China’s steel production rose 14 percent to a record 568 million tons in 2009. Steel capacity in China may have reached 700 million tons or more, Xiong Bilin, deputy director at the National Development and Reform Commission’s industry department, said in December.