Hbis Co. Ltd. expects its net profit attributable to shareholders for 2019 to drop between 25.5% and 36.6% as steel prices slumped and prices for raw materials including iron ore increased over the period, it said Jan. 16.

The Chinese steelmaker, also known as Hesteel, expects its net profit for the year to drop to between 2.3 billion Chinese yuan and 2.7 billion yuan, compared with 3.63 billion yuan booked for 2018.

Basic EPS for the 12 months is expected to decrease to between 17.7 fen and 21.4 fen, compared with 32 fen a year earlier.

As of Jan. 15, US$1 was equivalent to 6.89 Chinese yuan.