In the January-May period this year, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector in China recorded a gross profit of RMB 31.69 billion ($4.4 billion), compared to a gross loss of RMB 12.72 billion recorded in the same period of last year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on June 27.
The automotive sector recorded a gross profit of RMB 178.14 billion ($24.9 billion) in the given period, down 11.9 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 15.77 billion ($2.2 billion), RMB 59.2 billion ($8.3 billion) and RMB 53.09 billion ($7.4 billion) in the first five months, down 45.6 percent, up 7.3 percent and up 56.0 percent year on year, respectively.
In the given period, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 2.72043 trillion ($0.38 trillion), down 1.1 percent year on year.