Falling costs of coal and iron ore yield better H1 results

Falls in the prices of iron ore and coal helped Chinese steelmakers to gain better profits for the first half even though the domestic industry still faces a serious overcapacity problem, experts said on Friday.

The large and medium-scale steel companies had a total profit of 7.48 billion yuan ($1.21 billion) for the first half, up 4.3 billion yuan compared with the same period last year.

Zhang Changfu, vice-chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, said falls in the price of iron ore and coal were the major reasons for the better performance in the first half.