Since 2023, the steel industry has faced difficulties such as weakening demand and falling prices, which has led to the general pressure on the performance of steel enterprises. According to Eastern Wealth Choice data show that as of July 30, there are 24 listed companies in the steel industry released the first half of the performance forecast, of which 15 are expected to lose money, accounting for more than 60%. Experts interviewed by the Financial Daily reporter believe that the profitability of the steel industry is expected to continue to improve in the second half of the year. Many steel companies are expected to lose money in the first half of the year.
Among the 24 iron and steel enterprises that have disclosed the performance forecast for the first half of 2023, 15 companies are expected to lose money, with a total loss of about 9.958 billion yuan. Among them, Jiusteel Hongxing's net profit pre-fall is the largest, the performance forecast shows that the company is expected to achieve net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the first half of the year is -397 million yuan, the same period last year was -42.61448 million yuan, down about 831.95%. The company expects to lose about 2.238 billion yuan in the first half of the year, compared with a net profit of 1.428 billion yuan in the same period last year. A relevant person in charge of a listed steel company told the Financial Daily reporter: "In the first half of this year, the downstream demand of the entire industry has recovered less than expected, while affected by the sharp decline in steel prices, corporate profits have continued to decline, further increasing the operating pressure."
As far as steel prices are concerned, since the beginning of this year, the average level of steel prices has declined year-on-year, showing a narrow fluctuation trend. According to the China Iron and Steel Association monitoring, in the first half of the year, the average value of China's steel price index (CSPI) was 113.21 points, down 15.4% year-on-year. Lange Steel cloud merchant platform monitoring data show that in the first half of the year, the average Lange steel comprehensive steel price index was 4335 yuan/ton, down 843 yuan/ton from the same period last year, a decline of 16.3%. In the first half of this year, the operating conditions of the entire steel industry are not optimistic. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in the first half of 2023, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry achieved operating income of 4,039.04 billion yuan, down 9.6% year-on-year, and the total profit of 1.87 billion yuan, down 97.6% year-on-year. Steel companies actively seek change. Faced with the complex situation in the first half of the year, steel enterprises are actively responding. Gexin, deputy director of the Lange Steel Research Center, told reporters: "From the situation faced by steel enterprises this year, the environment facing the development of domestic steel production enterprises is still relatively severe, and steel enterprises actively seek change."
"In the face of the current situation of phased supply and demand imbalance in the steel market in the first half of the year, member enterprises have deeply promoted management changes, actively carried out potential exploration of the standard, and vigorously promoted cost reduction." We will unswervingly promote energy conservation and carbon reduction, unswervingly strengthen scientific and technological innovation, enhance competitiveness, foster new growth drivers, and continue to achieve new results in high-quality development." Tan Chengxu, president of the China Iron and Steel Association, said at the sixth sixth Council (expanded) meeting of the China Iron and Steel Association held from July 29 to 30.
In terms of low-carbon development, in the first half of the year, the first phase of the world's first 1.2 million tons of hydrogen metallurgical engineering demonstration project of Hesteel Group achieved complete success; Bayi Iron and Steel blast furnace hydrogen rich carbon cycle technology commercial demonstration project main project transformation started, low carbon metallurgy technology from the test stage into commercial application; Angang Group produced the country's first roll of low-carbon emission hot-formed steel for automobiles, and its production process can reduce carbon by more than 50%; Shougang issued a low-carbon action plan to achieve mass production of low-carbon automotive plate coating products with carbon reduction of more than 30%.
In terms of scientific and technological innovation, a total of 106 projects are recommended for the 2023 Metallurgical Science and Technology Awards, including 1 special prize and 22 first prizes. Many enterprises, such as Angang Steel Group and China Baowu, are listed on the list of "scientific reform enterprises" in SOE reform. In the first half of this year, Angang Group launched 33 mm thick X80 class large strain pipeline steel plate, the world's first; China Baowu New Steel Group successfully rolled the world's thinnest high grade non-oriented electrical steel; Shougang first two oriented electrical steel products in the world; He Iron and Steel Group domestic highest strength grade high titanium alloy welding wire steel instead of imports; Shagang Group fills the gap in China and launches high-end ship plate steel products with large welding heat input. Many aspects of good steel demand.
The continued strength of the steady growth policy will also help the gradual recovery of steel demand. The ministry said it will speed up the implementation of policies to promote automobile and household consumption, and step up the formulation and implementation of work plans for stable growth in 10 key industries, including automobiles, electronics and steel. "Due to the current steel demand affected by many favorable factors, pull steel production, it is expected that the second half of the steel and steel production will increase compared with the first half of the year, the efficiency of steel enterprises is expected to improve accordingly." Lange iron and steel economic research center chief analyst Chen Kexin told reporters. Citic Securities research report believes that the steel industry has a strong cyclical, is currently at the bottom of the valuation and profitability, is expected to promote the second half of the economic stability policy will improve demand, limited production policy will continue to promote the improvement of industry profitability, enhance the steel industry in the industry's bargaining power.
