CHINA'S Baoshan Iron and Steel Co, the country's largest steel maker, yesterday said its scheduled maintenance will lower product sales in the fourth quarter by 200,000 tons from the third.

The maintenance will include overhauling the hot-rolling production line of its stainless steel unit and one flagship cold rolling mill, President Ma Guoqiang told an online briefing, without providing further details.

Ma said the mill hoped to sell 22.26 million tons of steel products this year. The mill last week said it had sold 16.3 million tons of products in the first three quarters.

Baosteel's sales volume is in line with its production.

The steel maker, which last Thursday posted a 6.7-percent rise in quarterly net profit on higher sales volume, said it aimed to produce 23.7 million tons of crude steel this year, nearly 5 percent lower than targeted earlier this year.