What’s new: China Minmetals Corp. estimated that its net profit grew 10% on what it forecast to be record-breaking revenue in 2021, a banner year for the prices of industrial metals like copper and aluminum.
In a Wednesday notice (link in Chinese), China Minmetals estimated its 2021 operating revenue jumped 20%, but did not give a specific totals for profit or revenue. The company did note that last year marked the first time its operating revenue exceeded 800 billion yuan ($125.5 billion).
Based on China Minmetals’ 2020 totals, the company’s earned 15.5 billion yuan in net profit on 832.3 billion yuan in operating revenue last year, according to Caixin calculations.
For 2020, the company reported 14.1 billion yuan in net profit on 693.6 billion yuan in operating revenue, according to its annual report from that year.
Background: The producer’s strong financial performance is in line with the rising prices of metals. From the beginning of 2021, the London Metal Exchange (LME) Index — which tracks the prices of aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, and tin — has rocketed 31.85% over the year, reaching an all-time high of 4,502 on Dec. 31, figures from data platform tradingeconomics.com showed.
Last December, China approved the formation of a rare earth behemoth by merging units of state-owned metals enterprises, including one controlled by China Minmetals. The new company is expected to produce more than two-thirds of the country’s output of the heavy metals that are essential for producing electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and military equipment.
Contact reporter Manyun Zou (manyunzou@caixin.com) and editor Heather Mowbray (heathermowbray@caixin.com)
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
