China's iron and steel industry "is stepping into a stage of loss, not anymore minor-profit," Laodong Daily reported Thursday citing the China Iron and Steel Association's (CISA) vice-president Liu Zhenjiang.

A slump of profits has dragged China's iron and steel industry downhill from October 2011.

The industry was dragged downhill by the profits drop of more 80 percent year-on-year in October 2011, and dropped by 84 percent in November, and 71 percent in December, and the situation became even more severe this January, the report said.

Owners of the nation's steel companies are complaining an expanding profit loss ever since last October, as the industry is bogged by the flagging export volumes and the rising costs of upstream raw materials like iron ore. The iron & steel industry has long been deemed as a major indicator of economic situation in China. Yet, the gloomy outlook is unlikely to pick up any time soon, as the chances are slim for the purchasing costs of raw materials to decrease in a short time.

The output of the industry has been declining for four months in a row, and the average daily production has been staying a record low of recent few years, according to an analyst from Mysteel – a well-known information agency in China.

"In good times, the more you produce the more money you make. While in bad times, ironically, you have to curb the output because chances are the more you produce the more money you lose," said the analyst in anonymity.