China's industrial firms reported 1.56 trillion yuan (208
billion USdollars) of profits in the first eight months of this
year, up 37 percent from a year earlier, official figures released
on Thursday show.
Profits of state-owned enterprises rose 31 percent to 680.1
billion yuan, while collective and foreign-funded enterprises
scored 39.3 billion and 418.4 billion yuan respectively, according
to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Profits of private enterprises hit 260 billion yuan, up 48.5
percent compared with the same period last year.
The booming growth was primarily driven by soaring profits in
sectors such as steel, building material, and transport equipment,
according to NBS.
Steel firms saw their profits rising 58.9 percent from the same
period last year, profits of building material companies surged 64
percent and that of transport equipment makers went up 66.5
percent.
However, profits of oil and gas exploiters reported 16.2 percent
drop in profits in the eight-month period.
(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2007)
