China Metals Industry's Profits Slide Further in Jan-Feb

BEIJING, Apr. 2 -- Profits of China's nonferrous metals industry slid further in January and February, at a larger margin than that in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the corporate performance indicators for January and February released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

    According to the statistics, down-stream processing enterprises' performance dropped more greatly than that of up-stream resources enterprises.

    For nonferrous metals prospecting and mining enterprises, operational revenue and total profit between January and February dropped by 15.24 percent and 53.83 percent respectively from a year earlier.

    For nonferrous metals smelters and rolling processors, operational revenue and total profit between January and February slumped by 24.79 percent and 115.08 percent respectively on year.

    Prices of base metals have rebounded at large since the beginning of 2009, which eased pressure of the up-stream resources enterprises.

    However, down-stream processing enterprises are still trapped in grim conditions, as market demand for product metals maintains soft by far, plus the rising prices in raw materials.

    Analysts also note that a trend of resuming previously suspended production capacities is likely, supported by rising prices of base metals.

    The January output of China's ten major nonferrous metals totaled 1.653 million tons, down 12.04 percent on year, while the figure for February was 1.747 million tons, down 6.9 percent on year. The sliding rate was decreasing.

    Among that, electrolytic aluminum output in February rose by 11.6 percent on month, and copper, lead and zinc output all rose by over 20 percent on month.

    Further, listed resources enterprises have been performing better than those processing enterprises. For instance, the share price of Jiangxi Copper and Yunnan Copper has risen by 131 percent and 163 percent respectively from the beginning of 2009, while that of Hai Liang Co. and Xin Ke Materials has risen by 52 percent and 109 percent respectively.

    (Source: chinamining.org)