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Baosteel Reports Solid Increase in Automotive Sheet Sales for 2008

12/08/2008 - Baosteel preserves its leading role in automotive sheet production and sales, as it reports a 9.7% increase in total sales volume for the year as compared to the same period of the previous year.

Baosteel has kept its leading role in automotive sheet production and sales, reporting a 9.7% increase in total sales volume for the year as compared to the same period of the previous year. The company also reported strong sales achievement in a number of major varieties, with sales of high strength steel increasing 31% and sales of outer panels increasing 25% as compared to last year. The company estimated that the sales volume of each of these varieties for the whole year accounts for more than 60% of market share.
 
The company attributes its sales success, which it achieved despite of the abrupt change in market situation in 2008, to the joint efforts of its production, sales & research team as well as the automotive manufacturers.
 
Baosteel’s supply of automotive sheet was extremely tight in the first half when the automotive industry ran at high speed. However, in the second half, the company experienced the hardship of a sharp decline in demand as development of the automotive industry slowed down.
 
Baosteel said that since the beginning of the year, its automotive sheet production, sales and research team further promoted its product quality and service capacity to enhance their position and competitive advantage. They improved their user-oriented sales service system by making the internal response and synergy even faster, with the users' demand as the target of their work. They used the user’s standpoint as the basis for their R&D in automotive sheet technology and optimized automotive applications of the application of steel in automotive.
 
Through the year, Baosteel’s automotive team focused on strengthening their development of high strength automotive sheet, and promoted both wide and rapid use for automotive applications. They optimized the total business flow to shorten the response time and to speed up the process of modification for problems.

At the same time, Baosteel’s automotive team also promoted development of the parts management system to improve the management accuracy. They established a components file for major users to systematically follow up information on the component list, helping to lay a solid foundation for JIT supply to the automotive users.
 
To promote the company’s capacity and supply level for outer panel, the team also worked to optimize finishing line capacity. The production process was optimized to improve both yield and performance, with production now organized according to users' standards in order to meet the individual user requirements. Baosteel also strengthened its cooperation with the automotive manufacturers through constant optimization of the supply chain, further promotion of getting involved at the early stage, and other efforts.
 
When market demand shrank in the second half year, the company said its automotive team continued its work to enhance product quality and monitor the market for development opportunities. Externally, the team kept in close contact with the users to identify needs and to speed the company’s response so as to consolidate the market share of Baosteel products and to reduce the users’ production pressure.