(Beijing) – The Shanghai-listed subsidiary of state-owned Baosteel Group Corp. said its profits last year dropped by more than three-quarters year-on-year to 1.8 billion yuan due to lower prices and a much weaker yuan.

Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. said in a financial report released on January 19 that revenues also slipped, down by 12.6 percent to 164 billion yuan. Prices for steel products fell greater than prices for iron ore last year, the firm said, drastically squeezing profits.

An index of prices for domestically made steel that is published by the government-backed China Iron and Steel Association was more than one-quarter lower last year than in 2014. The reading – 60 out of 100 – was the lowest level in two decades.

Depreciation of the yuan over the past six months has pushed up costs on U.S. dollar-denominated debts, Baoshan Iron & Steel said. It said that it has made early repayment of some short-term foreign debts due to fears of a stronger dollar. The company did not provide the amount of U.S. dollar debt it held. Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. raised US$ 500 million by issuing bonds in December 2013 to fund expansion.

The value of the yuan has dropped by more than 5 percent to around 6.6 against the U.S. dollar since August 11.

The company said its gross profit rate, the ratio of gross profit to revenue, slid by 3.3 percentage points year-on-year in 2015. Data from the iron and steel association show that the rate for the industry in the first 10 months of the year was minus 2 percent.

Zhao Xizi, former head of the old Ministry of Metallurgical Industry, said at a summit in the capital on January 15 that only 11 state-owned and another 29 privately run steelmakers reported turning a profit in 2015. The industry, which also includes hundreds of small companies, was expected to post a loss of close to 100 billion yuan, he said.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)