BEIJING: China's leading steel maker, Baosteel, announced Wednesday that its net profit shrank 9.95 percent in 2009 year-on-year to 5.8 billion yuan ($850 million).

Its total business revenue decreased 25.97 percent to 148.5 billion yuan partly due to the waning international demand caused by the global economic slowdown earlier in 2009, Baosteel said in its annual report filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange Wednesday night.

"China's steel sales and prices began to pick up in the latter part of last year boosted by climbing demand from the domestic auto and home appliance industries," said the report from the country's largest steel maker by market value.

Its A-shares price shed 1.62 percent to 7.88 yuan per share Wednesday.