Baosteel Closed Six Furnaces on Low Demand, Shanghai News Says

By Helen Yuan

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Baosteel Group Corp. closed six blast furnaces since October after demand fell, the Shanghai Securities News reported, citing unidentified officials at the company.

The closures cut 2008 profit by 32 percent to 23 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) and lowered fourth-quarter output by 30 percent, the report said, without giving production details. Two of the smelters were turned off and four weren’t restarted after being shut for regular maintenances, the paper said. Shanghai-based Baosteel, China’s largest steelmaker, has steel units in Shanghai, Nanjing, Urumqi and Guangzhou.

Wuhan Iron & Steel Group also has kept some furnaces shut, the report said. Its total profit fell 18 percent to 7.6 billion yuan last year, the report said.

Hebei Iron & Steel Group has closed 11 furnaces at its seven mills, leaving the utilization ratio at 75 percent of capacity in the second half of last year.

To contact the reporter for this story: Helen Yuan in Shanghai at hyuan@bloomberg.net