Awesome! CITIC Special Steel!

(Source: Steel Metallurgy)

On the evening of March 16, CITIC Special Steel (000708.SZ) released its 2025 annual report. In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 107.373 billion yuan, net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 5.929 billion yuan, and basic earnings per share of 1.17 yuan/share.

Despite a complex and severe external environment and profound industry cycle changes, CITIC Special Steel’s net profit attributable to parent increased by 15.67% year-on-year, and net profit excluding non-recurring gains and losses increased by 17.41%. Its total profit ranks among the top in key statistical enterprises of the China Steel Association, demonstrating the core strength and value contribution of a leading special steel enterprise, and gaining high industry recognition. In 2025, CITIC Special Steel was again rated A+ (extremely strong) in the China steel enterprise competitiveness (and development quality) rating, and received AAA in the China steel enterprise ESG rating.

Meanwhile, CITIC Special Steel implemented its first mid-term dividend in 2025, with a total cash dividend payout ratio of about 55%. Since its overall listing in 2019, CITIC Special Steel has maintained approximately 50% of net profit attributable to parent as cash dividends for seven consecutive years, with a total dividend payout exceeding 22.7 billion yuan, fully sharing development results with shareholders through stable and continuous returns.

Achievements in high-end upgrade and continuous product structure optimization

In 2025, CITIC Special Steel achieved a steel sales volume of 19.5382 million tons, a record high, including 2.3029 million tons of exports; gross profit margin was 14.94%, an increase of over 2 percentage points compared to the previous year. The simultaneous improvement in both quantity and quality of operational performance reflects CITIC Special Steel’s relentless pursuit of high-end upgrading.

In 2025, CITIC Special Steel accelerated core technology breakthroughs, maintaining R&D investment at over 4% industry-leading level, and achieved five industrialization breakthroughs in key fields such as aerospace, deep-sea, and high-end equipment manufacturing, driving continuous product structure optimization.

High-end products such as high-speed rail bearing steel and deep well drilling steel injected new momentum into profitability; wire rod sales grew by 27%, 21%, and 70% respectively for fasteners, bearing steel, and automotive spring steel; in the “Small Giant” projects, ultra-high strength steel plates increased by 91.7% year-on-year, 13Cr oil well pipes grew by 25.4%, and overall sales of 68 projects increased by 6%; in the “Two Highs and One Special” products, total sales increased by 21%, with new products in wind power bearings and new energy vehicle molds exceeding 100% growth, and nickel-based high-temperature alloy GH4169 orders surged by 500%.

Solid progress in intelligent and green transformation, building differentiated competitive advantages

In recent years, the supply-side structural reform of the steel industry has deepened, and “anti-involution” has become a necessary response for steel companies. Policy guidance indicates that future industrial policies will focus on structural optimization, upgrading, and green low-carbon transformation, promoting resource concentration in advantageous enterprises through graded evaluation of “supporting the strong and eliminating the weak.”

In response, CITIC Special Steel vigorously promoted intelligent manufacturing upgrades and green low-carbon transformation in 2025, fully completed ultra-low emission upgrades, and its main production bases such as Xingcheng Special Steel, Daye Special Steel, and Qingdao Special Steel were selected as the first batch of “leading standard enterprises” in the steel industry announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It also passed the Level 4 assessment of intelligent manufacturing capability maturity and received an A-level environmental performance certification, gaining a development advantage under the new capacity governance mechanism.

Accurate international expansion, exploring new strategic spaces

In 2025, CITIC Special Steel seized the window of global supply chain restructuring, actively creating diversified overseas cooperation models: subsidiaries signed equity transfer agreements as acquisition entities, and after settlement, indirectly fully controlled Stanko Group, one of the world’s top three independent steel trading companies, effectively enhancing global market reach and service radius; adopted a “light-asset” innovative model by signing entrusted processing agreements to establish high-end overseas bar production bases; established a European R&D center to develop cutting-edge jetting materials, striving to secure a leading position in global special steel technological innovation. Moving forward, CITIC Special Steel will continue to implement its full industry chain layout of “resources + R&D + manufacturing + trade + services,” advancing its internationalization strategy in phases, continuously integrating global marketing networks, and gradually addressing weaknesses in global operations, resource control, and high-end access, further enhancing its global market competitiveness.

Bright prospects ahead, special steel carrier sets sail for the “14th Five-Year Plan”

Standing at the forefront of fulfilling national strategic needs and supporting manufacturing transformation and upgrading, the future of the special steel industry is very promising. We look forward to CITIC Special Steel, as a leading enterprise in China’s special steel industry, taking the opportunity of the “14th Five-Year Plan” launch, seizing key opportunities such as domestic substitution, emerging demands, and global expansion, with the responsibility of building a strong steel nation, consolidating the material foundation for high-end equipment manufacturing and new industrialization, and contributing more to high-quality economic and social development.

Editor | Chen Xi