TISCO proves its mettle in tough steel market (4)

"Despite this being a bad time for the industry as a whole, the company has continued to focus on spending on innovations."

Since 2001, TISCO has been investing about 5 percent of its sales every year on R&D.

It also spends 30 million yuan a year on bonuses to staff who make the biggest contributions to that innovation effort.

Domestic steel product prices fell about 14 percent last year because of the weak market.

However, TISCO's steel prices have increased by about 11 percent on average, thanks to its focus on high added-value products.

The competition in China's steel industry has expanded significantly in recent years.

Many more of its major steel players are seeking to make investments in upstream resources overseas, such as in Australia and Africa.

The rising price of iron ore, which has been dominated by the international giants for a long time, has forced Chinese companies to look for resources from around the world to reduce their costs.

However, finding the right investment target hasn't been easy, and many investments in mining businesses overseas have failed.

TISCO has been expanding its operations into upstream mining, but within China.