Chinese online steel trading platforms flourish

2017-05-08 10:14:43

Major Chinese steel online trading platforms continued to perform well over January-March this year after turning a profit in 2016. More growth and confidence have been seen at the start of the year among these online traders, Kallanish notes.

Two major steel online platforms Steelbank and Zhaogang are optimistic about 2017. Steelbank has reported a traded volume of 4.067 million tonnes of product and CNY 5.117 million ($742,281) in net profit over January-March. Its traded volume was up by 13.1% year-on-year according to the first quarter report of its listed owner, Ganglian, which also owns MySteel. Steelbank has managed to be profitable for five quarters so far.

Zhaogang chief executive Wang Dong says the company is very confident about doubling its 2016 revenue and net profit in 2017. In March alone it achieved more than CNY 5 billion in revenue, compared with an average CNY 3 billion/month last year.

According to Shanghai spot traders Zhaogang is actively collecting trading records in preparation to go public, although the company has not yet recieved approval. Wang has also said it expects to recieve state-led investment in the coming months.

In 2016 Baosteel’s online platform Ouyeel achieved 14.874mt in trading volume and CNY 38.69 billion in sales revenue. It lost CNY 290m over the period however. Zhaogangs Wang has said Ouyeel may agree to entering into a cooperation with Zhaogang in the future.