Profits of China’s iron and steel industry soared 23.4% from a year earlier to RMB 62.1bn ($10bn) in the first five months of 2013, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Ironmaking & steelmaing along with rolling reported a 43.1% year-on- year rise in January-May with profit totalling RMB 26.08bn ($4.19bn).

CISA said profits of its members, mostly large and medium-sized steel mills, amounted to about RMB 2.84bn ($45.68M) in the first five months of this year, up 33.99% year on year. According to CISA, these steelmakers earned RMB 1498.7bn ($241.0bn) of sales revenue during January-May, up 0.74% from a year earlier.

Ferrous metal mining and concentrating contributed RMB 29.57bn ($4.75bn) of profit in the January-May period, up 7.8% year on year, the NDRC said in a monthly report on industrial operations.

In May alone, steel mills still made a meagre profit with, large and medium- sized mills reporting RMB 149M ($23.9bn),down 89.38% year on year, and also down 2.57% month on month. The figure indicates that medium to large steel mills had seen a month-on-month decline in profit for five consecutive months.

Source: China Metals e-mail [email protected]