DONGBEI Special Steel Group Co., the steelmaker whose default in March helped spark a sharp correction in Chinese onshore corporate debt, said it is unable to make a timely payment on another bond.

    The firm, owned by the Liaoning provincial government, has already defaulted on multiple bonds in 2016. The firm posted the statement warning of the missed payment on the 300 million yuan (US$45.02 million) private placement note on the website of one of China’s main bond clearing houses yesterday.

    The three-year, 8.3 percent coupon note was due to mature Tuesday, the firm said. The firm cited its inability to raise additional cash as the reason for the default.

    The default marks the eighth for Dongbei Special Steel this year. Its original late March default helped start a sharp selloff in Chinese corporate bonds in April, but recently onshore debt has been bid up again, raising concerns among some analysts about the potential for another pull back and prompting intervention by the central bank to raise the cost of bond market leverage.

    The firm said Monday it was delaying the disclosure of its interim financial information as it was in the midst of a debt restructuring plan.

    Dongbei Special Steel’s repeated defaults have been at the center of a number of controversies this year.

    In July, investors holding around 2.2 billion yuan of the notes accused the Liaoning provincial government and the local State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of dereliction in their duty in dealing with Dongbei Special Steel’s defaults. (SD-Agencies)