China Steelmakers Defy Profit Squeeze as Shares Ride Market Wave
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China’s steelmakers are defying the weakest profit margins in seven years to outpace even the world’s best-performing stock market.
An index of 28 steel producers in China is up 76 percent this year compared with the 41 percent advance in the Shanghai Composite Index, the best performer among 92 major peers tracked by Bloomberg. That’s in contrast to a gauge of industry profitability that’s tumbled to an almost seven-year low amid rising iron ore and depressed steel prices, as the attached chart of Bloomberg Intelligence data shows.