In the January-May period this year, of the 41 industrial sectors in China, 30 witnessed year-on-year decreases in gross profit, while 10 saw increases in gross profit and gross profit in one sector remained stable, 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 49.33 billion ($7.0 billion), declining by 57.2 percent year on year, slowing down from the decrease of 60.4 percent recorded in the January-April period.
The automotive sector recorded gross profits of RMB 119.35 billion ($16.9 billion) in the first five months of the current year, down 33.5 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 10.18 billion ($1.4 billion), RMB 43.94 billion ($6.2 billion) and RMB 17.24 billion ($2.4 billion), up 20.9 percent, down 15.9 percent and down 6.5 percent year on year, respectively.
In the January-May period this year, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 1843.49 billion ($261.1 billion), down 19.3 percent year on year.
Zhu Hong, senior statistician of the industrial division of the NBS, stated that the situation regarding industries’ profitability improved in May due to better demand from downstream users and the easing of pressure from the cost side.
$1 = RMB 7.0808