MCC, once in serious debt, reborn

China Metallurgical Group Corp, or MCC, China's major iron and steel construction enterprise, has been revitalized from a low ebb after removing redundant and unprofitable branches. The progress arises from the national wave of transformation and upgrading as State-owned enterprises are encouraged to cut their leverage ratio and improve competiveness.

The company constructed the Beijing National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, the venue of the Shanghai World Expo and other infrastructural facilities across the country.

Production workshop of MCC's new material project under construction [Photo by Zhang Xiaozhe/sasac.gov.cn]

Back in 2012, it reported a deficit of 7.36 billion yuan ($1.75 billion), and was earmarked for special regulation by the authorities for three years due to high debt risk.

The company said it had blindly acquired several companies that resulted in poor performance, such as papermaking and non-ferrous metal metallurgy subsidiaries. MCC removed those branches to guarantee the safety of its assets chain and to focus on its core strength in metallurgical engineering.

Executive of MCC's new material technology subsidiary introduce the company to a media group. [Photo by Zhang Xiaozhe/sasac.gov.cn]

That includes production of new materials. When a new material project is put into operation in December, MCC expects to occupy more than 50 percent of the domestic market in power batteries with sales of up to 8 billion yuan.