Automobile-use products to help Tangsteel retain winning touch

Tangshan Iron and Steel Group Co plans to further expand its overseas businesses and manufacture more steel products for automobile use as part of its efforts to counter the slump in the Chinese steel industry.

Tangsteel's exports of cold-rolled sheets, used for automobile manufacturing, reached more than 1 million tons during the first 11 months. Exports of hot-rolled sheets, long products and medium and heavy plates, also used for automobiles, totaled more than 300,000 tons during the same period. Provided to China Daily

Tangsteel, a subsidiary of China's largest steel maker Hebei Iron and Steel Group, reported a profit of 260 million yuan ($41 million) for the first 10 months, at a time when most of the other major Chinese steel companies reported deficits caused by shrinking demand and higher raw material prices.

"The overseas market for steel products is getting more and more sluggish because of the weak global demand," said Sun Junxue, an employee at Tangsteel's corporate culture department. "Against the gloomy situation, our exports are maintaining an upward momentum," she said.

By the end of November, Tangsteel's steel product exports had risen to 1.4 million tons covering more than 150 countries and regions, according to company data.

The company's exports of cold-rolled sheets, which are used for automobile manufacturing, reached more than 1 million tons during the first eleven months. The export of hot-rolled sheets, long products and medium and heavy plates, all of which are for automobile use, totaled more than 300,000 tons during the same period.

The company plans to double its current output of automobile-use steel products to about 800,000 tons in 2013.

"We began to sell our automobile-use steel products in overseas markets from 2009 onwards," said Sun. "We have doubled the export volume this year compared with what it was in 2009."

She said besides the overseas markets in the Middle East and Indonesia, the company has also entered the European and American steel markets and also in developed countries such as Germany and Italy.

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