Posted on 28 Mar 2023
China's sizable industrial firms posted a 22.9% on-year decline in their profits during the first two months of this year, with the total reaching Yuan 887.2 billion ($129 billion), the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Monday.
The term 'sizable industrial firms' refers to those whose main business revenue reaches at least Yuan 20 million annually, Mysteel Global notes.
"Though industrial production has picked up moderately, market demand has yet to fully recover," Sun Xiao, NBS's statistician, was quoted as saying.
Over January-February, sizable industrial enterprises saw their business revenue dip 1.3% on year to Yuan 19.3 trillion. In contrast, their operating costs fell by just 0.2% on year to reach Yuan 16.4 trillion, the NBS data showed.
During the first two months, ten out of the 41 industrial sectors posted on-year gains in their profits, the data show. Within the total, the manufacturing sector for equipment used in rail, marine, aerospace and other transportation achieved the highest on-year growth of 64.8% and reached Yuan 4.7 billion.
China's electric power and heat production and supply sector posted the second highest growth of 53.1% on year to achieve a profit of Yuan 56.6 billion, while the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sector ranked third in terms of its on-year rise in profits, with this jumping by 41.5% to Yuan 66 billion, Mysteel Global noted from the official data.
Meanwhile, the country's ferrous mining and processing sector saw its profits over January-February plummet by 41.5% on year to Yuan 7.3 billion, while the financial health of the country's downstream steelmaking and processing sector plunged by a huge 1.5 times during the same period to a Yuan 10.1 billion loss.
As for the nonferrous sector, smelting and processing firms suffered a 57.2% on-year decline in profits to reach Yuan 20.6 billion, while the nonferrous mining and processing sector saw its profits grow 30.3% on year to Yuan 13.1 billion, according to NBS.
Source:Mysteel Global
