The Wuhan Iron and Steel Company Ltd. (WISCO), the listed arm of China's Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp., posted a decline of 75.79 percent in net profit in the third quarter this year because of falling sales.

The company's net profit reached 546.56 million yuan (80.02 million U.S. dollars) during the July-September period, and its net profit in the first nine months amounted to 1.05 billion yuan, it said in a report to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Sunday.

Its net profit in the January-September period last year was 7.17 billion yuan.

The WISCO forecast a more than 50 percent decrease in its 2009 net profit as uncertainties remain in domestic steel industry amid an unsound world economic recovery.

The company's business revenue was 37.4 billion yuan in the first nine months, down from 58.13 billion yuan in the same period last year.