China's industrial profits down 10.6% in Jan-Aug

Sep. 30, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China's major industrial enterprises saw industrial profits drop 10.6% from a year earlier to RMB 1.67 trillion in the first eight months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.

State-owned enterprises earned RMB 504.5 billion in profit in the first eight months of this year, 25.2% less than a year earlier, while the profits of shareholding enterprises decreased 13.2% from a year earlier to RMB 904.6. Profits of foreign-invested enterprises fell 6.1% to RMB 477.6 billion in the same period, while profits of private enterprises rose 6.6% to RMB 439.9 billion.

During the eight-month period, the profit of the power industry surged 194% year on year, while that of the chemical fiber industry rose 42.4% from a year earlier. The building materials sector saw profit grow 16.3% from the same period of last year.

The petroleum processing and coking industry earned RMB 71.2 billion in profit, reversing a loss of RMB 94.2 billion in the same period last year.

However, profit in the steel industry plunged 71.7%, while profit in smelting and pressing of nonferrous metals tumbled 56.8%. There was a 68.5% year-on-year decline in petroleum and natural gas extraction, a 16.8% fall in the chemical industry, and a 25.3% drop in the electronic and telecom equipment manufacturing industry and an 11.8% dive in the coal mining industry.

Industrial enterprises realized operating revenue of RMB 32.38 trillion in the first eight months of this year, 1.6% less than in the same period of last year.