said April 27 that its net profit attributable to shareholders for the first quarterwas flat at 1.53 billion Chinese yuan, or 9 fen per share, down 1.2% compared tothe 1.55 billion yuan posted a year ago.

Operatingincome was down 14.77% to 35.27 billion yuan from 41.39 billion yuan recorded inthe same quarter of 2015.

Baosteelattributed its continued net profit to the rebound in steel prices in February andMarch, as well as cost reductions across the company. Operating costs were reducedto 33.05 billion yuan, from 39.25 billion yuan posted a year ago.

However,finance costs jumped to 528.4 million yuan from 199.4 million yuan, due to a 200million-yuan increase in interest expenses.

In thefirst quarter, the company produced 6.3 million tonnes of iron ore, 6.5 milliontonnes of steel and 5.6 million tonnes of steel plates.

As of April 27, US$1 was equivalentto 6.50 Chinese yuan.