"Factors including weak demand, lower prices of industrial products and rising costs led to the fall in profits," said NBS senior statistician Zhu Hong.

The HBIS Group, or Hebei Iron and Steel, paid about 200 million yuan ($29 million) to Vale, the largest producer and exporter of iron in the world, earlier this week.

Ferrosilicon futures 2005 contract close at 5832 on Friday February 14.

HBIS released ferrosilicon 72# tender price of February as 6900 yuan per ton, an increase of 750 yuan per ton on January, and the tender volume was 1050 tons, down by 863 tons vs. the last month.

Ferrosilicon futures 2005 contract close at 5864 on Thursday February 13.

Global crude steel production reached 1,869.9 million tonnes (Mt) for the year 2019.

China exported a total of 25600.133 tons of ferrosilicon (>55%) in December, 2019.

Ferrosilicon futures 2005 contract close at 5910 on Wednesday February 12.