China Baowu Steel Group (Baowu), the world’s largest steelmaker, produced 130.77 million tonnes of crude steel in 2023, Hu Wangming, the company’s chairman, disclosed at a conference convened by the China Iron and Steel Association last Friday.
This result was slightly lower by 1.07 million tonnes or 0.8% than the 131.84 million tonnes of crude steel Baowu churned out over 2022, Mysteel Global notes.
Meanwhile, the conglomerate saw its operating income total Yuan 1.103 trillion ($154 billion) last year, while its profits amounted to Yuan 31.61 billion over the same period, according to Hu. “(The company’s) business performance has been maintained at 2022 level,” he said.
Baowu’s operating income and total profits stood at Yuan 1.16 trillion and Yuan 31.28 billion respectively in 2022, Mysteel Global learned.
“The Chinese steel industry had entered a downward cycle in 2022, and the situation for the industry became even more challenging in 2023,” Hu remarked, noting that “Baowu’s operating performance declined sharply in the first half of last year, but the company promptly adjusted its business strategies in the second half.”
Hu pointed out that Baowu established directions towards achieving high-end, intelligent, green and high-efficient development. In addition, the steel giant also adopted a high-quality development path with the principles of “production with orders, production volume with marginal contributions, sales revenue with profits and profits with cash flow”.
These moves completely reversed the unfavorable situation in the first half of 2023, leading to a notable improvement in its operating performance for later last year, he emphasized.
