China's building materials sector reports growth in first two months

BEIJING -- China's building materials sector saw visible growth in the first two months of this year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The sector's value-added output gained 45.7 percent year-on-year during the January-February period, reversing the previous downward trend, the MIIT said.

The reading was 10.6 percentage points higher than the average industrial output growth of designated large enterprises with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about $3.08 million).

On a year-on-year basis, China's cement output expanded 61.1 percent to reach 240 million tonnes, and that of plate glass grew 9.3 percent to 160 million weight boxes, MIIT data showed.