OREANDA-NEWS. May 04, 2012. The steel industry turned meager profits into losses in the first quarter.

Shougang and Wuhan Steel have reported substantial falls in their period one profit, by 96.63 percent and 92.86 percent respectively.

In the first quarter, large and medium steelmakers made a loss of 1.03 billion yuan. As of the end of March, the composite steel price index decreased by 7.67 percent from a year earlier. Output of pig iron, crude steel and steel products were 165.92 million tons, 174.22 million tons and 222.46 million tons respectively.