Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel, China’s number one stainless steel producer, said over the weekend that it plans to issue a further 350 million A shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to raise funds to build a new plant employing cutting-edge technology in order to boost profitability, the 21st Century Business Herald reported. No further details were given but the steel maker said last September that it hoped to eventually raise US$1.04 billion (RMB7.5 billion) from the stock market to build a RMB7.7 billion cold roll stainless steel plant. Shanxi Taigang posted a net profit of US$498.43 million (RMB3.58 billion) in the first three quarters of last year, up 161% year-on-year. Its revenues climbed 143% to US$8.41 billion (RMB60.4 billion). The mill had 3 million tonnes of stainless steel capacity and produced 2.03 million tonnes of the metal in 2007.