Key points
- Angang Steel revealed this in a stock exchange filing
- Angang logged a net loss of seven billion yuan in 2024
ISLAMABAD: World number-three steelmaker Angang Steel has said in a stock exchange filing that it lost nearly $1 billion last year.
The Chinese giant was hit by domestic overcapacity and poor demand.
According to AFP, China’s steel sector has been under pressure from a prolonged slump in the country’s real estate market, traditionally a major consumer, that has hit demand in the world’s second-largest economy.
Angang logged a net loss of seven billion yuan ($969 million) in 2024, compared with a 4.1 billion yuan loss the year before, its Hong Kong-listed unit said on Sunday.
The company blamed “severe market conditions” for the weak performance.
Those included the “persistent lack of downstream demand in the steel industry, combined with a weak cycle and low market sentiment”.
World’s largest producer
China is the world’s largest producer of steel, making more than a billion tonnes in 2024.
With demand slumping in the domestic construction sector, Chinese steel exports surged last year to a nine-year high of 111 million tonnes, spurring concerns abroad about overcapacity in foreign markets.
In February, US President Donald Trump said he would impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel imported into the United States, including those from China, from March 12.
Vietnam and South Korea, the largest importers of Chinese steel, have also announced levies.
China’s top planning body said this month it aimed to cut steel output in 2025, without specifying a level of reduction.
British Steel
According to Reuters, China-owned British Steel said it could close its two blast furnaces as soon as June with the potential loss of up to 2,700 jobs, as US tariffs and environmental costs threaten to damage its already struggling operations.
British Steel, owned by China’s Jingye Group, has warned for years that steelmaking in Scunthorpe, north east England, is loss-making, and has been in talks with the government for months about securing funding to switch to a greener type of steel production.
But the two sides have failed to reach a deal, and British Steel said on Thursday it was making the “difficult decision” to start a consultation over the closure of its blast furnaces and other related operations.
