In the January-August period this year, of the 41 industrial sectors in China, 25 witnessed year-on-year decreases in gross profit, while 16 saw increases 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 gross profits of RMB 137.44 billion ($20.2 billion), declining by 23.1 percent year on year, 8.9 percentage points slower than the decline rate compared to that recorded in the first seven months of the current year.
The automotive sector recorded gross profits of RMB 308.48 billion ($45.4 billion) in the first eight months of the current year, up 1.5 percent year on year, shifting from the year-on-year decrease of 5.9 percent recorded in the first seven months this 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 21.07 billion ($3.1 billion), RMB 85.79 billion ($12.6 billion) and RMB 33.64 billion ($4.9 billion), up 31.3 percent, down 6.1 percent and down 3.6 percent year on year, respectively.
In the January-August period this year, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 3.71665 trillion ($0.55 trillion), down 4.4 percent year on year, 3.7 percentage points slower than the decline rate recorded in the first seven months this year.
Zhu Hong, senior statistician of the industrial division of NBS stated that in August the continuous rising trend in crude oil and iron ore prices exerted a positive impact on mining industry’s profitability.
Meanwhile, the improvement in demand from downstream users, rising steel prices and relatively low basis over the same period last year contributed to the rapid growth in steel industry’s profitability.