Posted on 29 Jun 2023
China's sizable industrial firms saw their gross profits decline by 18.8% on year to Yuan 2.67 trillion ($369 billion) in the first five months of this year, according to the latest release by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on June 28. Nevertheless, the pace of decline was slower by 1.8 percentage points than that during the prior four months, the NBS data showed.
For May alone, Chinese industrial firms' gross profits totalled Yuan 635.8 billion, down 12.6% on year, according to the NBS. Notably, the decline pace of May has narrowed for three consecutive months and was also smaller than the 18.2% on-year fall in April.
"Enterprises' profits have been showing a steady recovery," said Sun Xiao, a statistician with the NBS.
Specifically, over January-May, 14 of China's 41 industrial sectors posted on-year gains in profits, while 24 saw their profits fall year on year, the NBS data showed.
Within the total, the coal mining and washing sector still ranked the top in terms of gross profits, totalling Yuan 365.8 billion during the past five months, though down 18.7% on year.
This sector was followed by the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sector, whose value rose 29.2% on year to Yuan 221.5 billion, the data showed.
Elsewhere, Chinese steelmakers and fabricators suffered a Yuan 2.1 billion loss in their profits during the first five months, or slumping 103% on year.
In contrast, the upstream mining sector recorded Yuan 18.5 billion in profits, though the value was down 41.9% on year.
As for China's non-ferrous smelters and fabricators, they posted a 53% on-year tumble in profits to Yuan 62.8 billion over January-May, while the non-ferrous mining and processing sector saw its profits edge up 1.3% on year to Yuan 31.3 billion.
The NBS also warned that "the external environment has become more complex and graver, and China's domestic demand remains weak, both of which will constrain the further recovery of Chinese firms' profits."
Source:Mysteel Global
