Industry Iron and steel Website wisco.com.cn Founded 1958 | ||
 | ||
Parent China Baowu Steel Group Corporation Owner China Baowu Steel Group (100%) Key people Ma Guoqiang (Chairman and Party Committee Secretary) Subsidiaries Wugang (Australia) Pty. Ltd. | ||
Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corporation (WISCO), is a Chinese state-owned enterprise. It started to operate in 1958 in Qingshan, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
It was administrated by State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), but in 2016 it would be merged with fellow SASAC supervised steel maker Baosteel Group.
According to World Steel Association (Chinese companies data was provided by China Iron and Steel Association), the corporation was ranked the 11th in 2015 the world ranking by production volume. However, after a heavy net loss in 2015, a plan to cut the production capacity in Qingshan plant, Ezhou and Xiangyang for a total of 4.42 million metric tonns.
History
The steel plant in Qingshan, was one of the 156 important construction projects of the First Five-year plan of China.
In 1997, a subsidiary, Wuhan Iron and Steel Company was incorporated to listed Qingshan steel plant in Shanghai Stock Exchange, while Wuhan Iron and Steel Group was transformed into a holding company, which acquired steel plant in Ezhou, Liuzhou (sold back to SASAC of Guangxi in 2015) and build a new plant in Fangchenggang, Guangxi.
In September 2012 Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation agreed to acquire the automotive components manufacturer Tailored Blanks from ThyssenKrupp for an undisclosed price. At the time of the agreement Tailored Blanks had annual sales of around 700 million euros and a global market share of about 40 percent in automotive laser-welded blanks.
Its executive chairman, Deng Qilin, was investigated for corruption in 2015. New chairman, Ma Guoqiang, who replaced Deng Qilin in June 2015, had announced a plan to cut 50,000 staff from their current 80,000.
On 21–22 September 2016 the merger plan between Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation and Baosteel Group was announced. The listed subsidiary, Wuhan Iron and Steel Company, would be taken over by the listed counterpart of Baosteel in an all-share deal, while the rights of unlisted Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation would be transferred to Baosteel Group for free, as both were supervised by the same entity, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. The merger was completed in November 2016.