Profits of China's major industrial firms increased 18.8 percent year on year during the January-May period, surpassing a rise of 18.2 percent in the first four months, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Saturday.
Industrial firms with an annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.93 million U.S. dollars) saw their combined profits reach 3.14 trillion yuan in the five-month period, according to the NBS.
In May alone, profits of major industrial firms rose 21.1 percent compared to a year earlier, the NBS data showed.
From January to May, state-holding enterprises saw a total profit of 1,048.66 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.6 percent; share-holding enterprises realized a total profit of 2,434.81 billion yuan, up 24.1 percent year on year; enterprises funded by foreign investors and investors from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative region and Taiwan region recorded a total profit of 695.72 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.2 percent; while private enterprises realized a total profit of 772.65 billion yuan, up 10.7 percent from the same period of the previous year, according to the data.
In the same period, the mining industry realized a total profit of 479.52 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.5 percent; the total profit of the manufacturing industry was 2,328.52 billion yuan, up 20.0 percent year on year; while the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water realized a total profit of 335.92 billion yuan, down 2.7 percent from the same period of the previous year, the NBS data showed.
From the perspective of industries, in the January-May period, the profit of non-ferrous metals smelting and pressing increased by 117.1 percent year on year, of computers, communication equipment and other electronic equipment manufacturing increased by 103.9 percent, of raw chemical materials and chemical products manufacturing increased by 71.6 percent, of coal mining and washing grew by 33.5 percent, of petroleum and natural gas extraction rose by 17.2 percent, of the textile industry increased by 11.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the profit of general purpose machinery manufacturing decreased by 0.2 percent year on year, of electricity and thermal power production and supply down 4.1 percent, of special purpose machinery manufacturing decreased by 5.5 percent, of agricultural food and sideline products processing down 13.3 percent, of electrical machinery and apparatus manufacturing decreased by 13.7 percent, of automobile manufacturing shrank by 19.8 percent, of ferrous metals smelting and pressing decreased by 37.4 percent, of non-metallic mineral products manufacturing down 48.9 percent, the data showed, adding that petroleum, coal and other fuel processing had turned from loss to profit.
During the first five months, major industrial firms achieved a business revenue of 56.55 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.5 percent. The operating cost incurred stood 48.04 trillion yuan, up 4.7 percent, while the profit rate of business revenue came in at 5.56 percent, 0.63 percentage points higher than the same period of the previous year.
By the end of May, the assets of major industrial firms totaled 193.55 trillion yuan, up 5.8 percent year on year. Their total liabilities were 112.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5 percent. The owner's equity reached 80.87 trillion yuan, rising by 5.0 percent. These enterprises' asset liability ratio was 58.2 percent, 0.3 percentage point higher from the same period of last year.
Profits of China's major industrial firms up 18.8 pct in first 5 months
