China's Baosteel Q1 net profit climbs 4.4% despite sagging steel prices
- Baosteel's Q1 net profit up 4.4% y/y
- Baosteel's 2023 net profit down 2% y/y
China's biggest listed steelmaker, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co 
600019, on Friday reported a 4.4% rise in its first-quarter net profit despite lower steel prices and disappointing demand.
The company, known as Baosteel, said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it earned about 1.93 billion yuan ($266.35 million) in January-March, up from 1.85 billion yuan inthe same period in 2023.
Meanwhile, the company said in a separate filing that 2023 net profit fell 2% year-on-year to 11.94 billion yuan.
Baosteel is a subsidiary of the state-owned China Baowu Steel Group, the world's largest steelmaker.
The steelmaker's first-quarter operating revenue rose 2.81% year-on-year to 80.81 billion yuan.
"We have overcome challenges from a falling steel market...we cut costs by 2.24 billion yuan, supporting the company to outperform the industry in the past quarter," said the company.
Steel prices in China, the world's largest steel producer and consumer, slid by over 9% from the beginning of the year to end-March, data from consultancy Mysteel showed, due to sluggish demand, dragged by the lingering property woes.
Baosteel expects the new productive forces from new infrastructure, new energy, photovoltaic sectors to be the important driving force for steel demand in 2024, adding that the steel sector may face downward pressure for a longer period of time.
Baosteel manufactured 11.88 million metric tons of iron and 13.10 million tons of steel in the first quarter.
It aims to produce 49.06 million tons of iron and 51.5 million tons of steel in 2024.
Baosteel received 1.52 million tons of overseas orders for steel products in the first quarter.
The company's steel exports in 2023 stood at 5.84 million tons, with more than a third flowing to Southeast Asia and South Asia.
China exported a total of 90.26 million tons of steel products last year, a rise of 36.2% year-on-year.
Its share price fell 0.28% to 7.09 yuan on Friday.
($1 = 7.2462 Chinese yuan)