In the January-April period this year, of the 41 industrial sectors in China, 36 witnessed year-on-year decreases in gross profit, while five 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 an aggregate gross profit of RMB 30.63 billion ($4.3 billion), declining by 60.4 percent year on year.
The automotive sector recorded a gross profit of RMB 68.08 billion ($9.6 billion), down 52.1 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 aggregate gross profits of RMB 7.76 billion ($1.1 billion), RMB 29.8 billion ($4.2 billion) and RMB 12.39 billion ($1.7 billion), up 40.3 percent, down 22.3 percent and down 11.7 percent year on year, respectively.
In the January-April period of the year, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 1259.79 billion ($177.4 billion), down 27.4 percent year on year.
Zhang Weihua, deputy director of the industrial division of the NBS, indicated that the situation as regards industries’ profitability improved further in April, though the lack of a full recovery of demand, decreasing industrial product prices and increasing raw material prices still exerted a negative impact on enterprises’ profitability.