Posted on 30 May 2023
China's sizable industrial firms posted a 20.6% on-year decline in profits during this year's first four months to reach Yuan 2.03 trillion ($287.8 billion), according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.
For April alone, those firms' profits amounted to Yuan 516.1 billion, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data, which represented a similarly large 18.2% on-year fall – though a 1 percentage point improvement on their March performance, NBS noted.
During January-April among the country's 41 industrial sectors, 13 saw their profits grow on year while 27 posted on-year declines, according to NBS.
Over the first four months, China's coal mining and washing sector – among all the 41 industrial sectors – maintained its top position in terms of profits, with the total of the sampled firms in the sector adding up to Yuan 295.4 billion. This was still down by 14.6% on year, however.
Ranking second in total profits was the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sector with the value swelling 30.1% to Yuan 161.9 billion over the same period, the NBS data found.
In stark contrast, China's ferrous sectors suffered substantial slumps in profits on year during the past four months. The latest NBS statistics showed that the ferrous mining and processing sector marked a 42.8% on-year decline in profits to Yuan 14.1 billion, while profits among firms in the steelmaking and processing sector plunged by an even larger 99.4% on year to total a mere Yuan 390 million.
As for the country's nonferrous sector, smelting and processing firms reported a 55.1% on-year drop in profits to reach Yuan 49.3 billion over January-April, while the nonferrous mining and processing sector saw its profits rise by 6.7% on year to Yuan 24.8 billion, according to NBS.
Source:Mysteel Global
