On April 22, Guangxi Province-based Chinese steelmaker Liuzhou Iron and Steel Co. (Liuzhou Steel) announced that in 2013, its operating revenue amounted to RMB 36.849 billion ($6.011 billion), down 1.15 percent, while it recorded a net profit of RMB 217 million ($34.76 million), up 76.78 percent, both year on year. In 2011 and 2012, the company had registered operating revenues of RMB 42.391 billion ($6.92 billion) and RMB 37.276 billion ($6.08 billion), respectively.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of the current year, the steel producer achieved an operating revenue of RMB 9.28 billion ($1.51 billion), down 1.06 percent, and a net profit of RMB 118 million ($19.25 million), up 43.15 percent, both on year-on-year basis.
In 2013, Liuzhou Steel has produced 10.33 million mt of pig iron, 10.73 million mt of crude steel and 5.26 million mt of finished steel. As for 2014, the company plans to produce 10.6 million mt of pig iron, 11 million mt of crude steel and 7.1 million mt of finished steel, in order to register an operating revenue of RMB 36.2 billion ($5.9 billion) and a net profit of RMB 121 million ($19.74 million).
In the report, Liuzhou Steel stated that due to continuous declines of finished steel prices, last year company's most products have registered price declines, especially the price of its main product, bars and wire rod dropped below to RMB 3,000/mt ($489/mt), indicating the difficult market condition during the year. Therefore, the company's net profit depended on the increase of its semi-finished product sales.
