Tangshan Iron & Steel – China’s second largest publicly traded steel mill – said its profit for the first six month of this year might surge as much as 80% thanks to better production techniques, Economy Daily reported. The lower limit of its prediction was a 50% gain. The Hebei province-based steelmaker reported nearly RMB703 million in net profits last year, but profits reached RMB465 million in the first quarter of this year alone. Its share price has more than quadrupled since 2006. It is concentrating on increasing its output of higher value-added products, such as cold-roll steel sheets for autos and plates for ships. The industrial benchmark price for hot-roll coil averaged RMB4,248 per metric ton this year compared to RMB3,776 last year.

China’s largest oil company, PetroChina, will sell US$5.6 billion worth of shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to raise capital for overseas oil exploration drilling, the Shanghai Securities News reported. The company plans to spend RMB40 billion to find new fields in Shanghai to help China reduce its dependence on imported oil. It has recently announced the discovery of a natural gas field in Longgang, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, which holds 500 billion cubic meters of reserves and is expected to produce four billion cubic meters by 2010.