In 2019, of the 41 industrial sectors in China, 28 witnessed year-on-year increases in gross profit, while 13 saw decreases in gross profit, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In the given period, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector recorded an aggregate gross profit of RMB 267.71 billion ($38.7 billion), declining by 37.6 percent year on year. The decrease rate was down 4.7 percentage points compared to that recorded in the January-November period of the given year.
In 2019, the Chinese automotive sector recorded gross profits of RMB 508.68 billion ($73.5 billion), down 15.9 percent year on year.
At the same time, the ferrous metals mining and dressing sector, the metal manufacturing sector and the railway, shipping, aerospace and other transportation equipment manufacturing sector recorded gross profits of RMB 21.5 billion ($3.1 billion), RMB 158.01 billion ($22.8 billion) and RMB 62.21 billion ($9.0 billion), up 396.5 percent, 5.9 percent and 11.9 percent year on year, respectively.
As of December 31 last year, Chinese domestic production iron ore prices were recorded at RMB 788/mt ($113.8/mt), 1.68 percent higher month on month, exerting a negative impact on the performance of the steel smelting and rolling sector, though iron ore prices contributed to the good performance of the ferrous metals mining and dressing sector.
In 2019, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 6199.55 billion ($895.2 billion), down 3.3 percent year on year.