Yi Dazong (01733) is expecting mid-term net profit to exceed HK$240 million, a year-on-year increase of more than 80%

According to the Zhitong Finance App, Yi Dazong (01733) announced that the Group expects net profit for the six months ending June 30, 2026 to exceed HK$240 million, an increase of more than 80% over the same period in 2025. The increase in performance was mainly due to the year-on-year increase in coking coal market prices, which led to a recovery in gross profit in the company's coal trading business and a steady improvement in the overall profit level.

At the industry level, in the first half of 2026, China's coking coal market showed a broad upward trend of moderation and gradual rise. The market price center moved upward year on year, and industry sentiment improved compared to the same period in 2025.

1. The first half of the year was disrupted by factors such as climatic factors and local safety incidents. Production capacity was tightened to a certain extent in China's main production areas, and domestic coking coal supply declined somewhat compared to the same period last year;

2. Imported resources seize the market window to form an effective supplement. Coking coal imports increased significantly year-on-year in the first half of the year. According to the data, the country's total imports of coking coal reached 66.88 million tons in the first half of the year, an increase of about 26% over the previous year. Among them, Mongolian coal imported 40.58 million tons, an increase of about 64% over the previous year;

3. In this context, coking coal prices generally rose in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. Among them, the scarcity of main coking coal was more prominent: the average domestic spot price of main coking coal rose by nearly 25% in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. The scarcity of high-quality low-sulphur main coking coal resources was prominent, the market supply and demand pattern improved, and the industry's operation trend was healthy.

Based on the fundamentals of the positive supply and demand pattern in the coking coal industry in the first half of the year, the company relied on forward-looking strategic resource layout and refined risk control management capabilities to strengthen efficient collaboration among various business nodes, promote year-on-year growth in the integrated service sector of the supply chain, consolidate the basic business market, and actively seize industry opportunities. On the one hand, the company's diversified resource layout effectively calms supply disruptions, hedges operational uncertainty caused by fluctuations in the import pattern, and ensures stable supply and operation of the coal trade business; on the other hand, the company continues to improve the market-based risk management system, rationally uses futures derivatives to hedge against the risk of broad commodity price shocks, and effectively smooth phased operating profit fluctuations. In summary, the Group achieved steady growth in operating performance for the six months ended June 30, 2026.