China's Baoshan Iron and Steel Co, the Shanghai listed unit of Baosteel Group, said that net profit for the first quarter of 2011 slipped 21.88% YoY CNY 3.070 billion. Its quarterly sales totaled CNY 54.018 billion, up by 21.84% YoY.

Rising costs of steelmaking raw materials in the first three months of 2011 were responsible the slip in net profit.

China's domestic steel market is expected to continue confronting difficulties in the second quarter of 2011 due to the slowing pace of development in downstream sectors such as the automobile industry.

In the first three months of 2011, Baoshan Iron & Steel produced 5.797 million tonnes of hot metal and 6.604 million tonnes of crude steel. It sold 6.277 million tonnes of semis and finished steel over January to March 2011 period.

(Sourced from www.chinamining.org)