Xiwang Special Steel Company Limited provided consolidated earnings guidance for the first quarter ended 31 March 2018. For the period, the company’s consolidated profit attributable to the shareholders of the company is expected to increase by 26% as compared with that for the three months ended 31 March 2017. The increase in the consolidated net profit attributable to the shareholders of the company for the three months ended 31 March 2018 was mainly due to the: on the supply side, the favourable government policies on prohibiting the use of intermediate frequency furnace and on alleviating overcapacities of the steel industry have resulted in a significant decrease in production capacities of certain steel enterprises; on the demand side, the approval by the government on numerous infrastructure projects, frequent construction activities and steady demand from the property development industry have caused the demand on steel to increase further and the steel price to rise persistently; factors, such as, persistent rise in steel price, moderate increase in raw material price, lead to an increase in their profit margin along with an increase in gross profit of steel; and decrease in finance costs, decrease in income tax expense because of recognition as a High and New Technology Enterprise and increase in government subsidy. The company expects sales volume of self-manufactured steel products of approximately 690,000 tonnes and consolidated net profit attributable to the shareholders of the company of approximately RMB 234 million.