China's industrial performance continues recovery, despite marginal profits decline

BEIJING -- China's industrial performance has continued its recovery momentum, even though industrial profits edged down as a result of multiple factors, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

Major industrial firms, each with annual business revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.92 millio), saw their profits fall 1.1 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2022, to reach 4.89 trillion yuan, data from the NBS showed.

The combined revenues of these firms sustained a faster growth pace during the period, rising 8.8 percent year-on-year to 76.57 trillion yuan.

A total of 16 out of 41 major industries saw growth in profits in the January-July period, and 14 of them reported growth of over 5 percent.

NBS senior statistician Zhu Hong highlighted the recovery of the equipment manufacturing industry and the uptick of industrial profits of the automobile manufacturing sector, as supply and production chains are resuming, and pro-consumption policies such as the car purchase tax cuts are taking effect.

In July, the profits of the equipment manufacturing industry increased 6.8 percent year-on-year, up 2.7 percentage points compared with the growth registered in June and rebounding for three consecutive months.

Automobile manufacturing was one of the industries that saw the fastest profit growth, reporting a sharp profit surge of 77.8 percent in July, up 30.1 percentage points from June.

As China took stronger steps to ensure the energy supply, the expansion of the coal and crude oil output, as well as energy production, has driven up the profit growth of related industries, according to Zhu.

From January to July, profits of the coal mining sector jumped 1.05 times from the same period last year, which contributed 10.3-percentage-point growth to the profits of major industrial firms.

The raw material manufacturing industry weighs the most heavily on overall industrial profits, Zhu said. In the first seven months, the profits of the industry plunged 21.6 percent year-on-year, expanding by 7.6 percentage points compared with the drop in the first half.

More efforts are needed to consolidate the recovery, said Zhu, citing reasons including relatively higher costs for businesses, softening market demand in certain sectors, increasing operating pressure, as well as a more complex global landscape.

For the next stage, Zhu highlighted the importance of ensuring the smooth operation of production and supply chains, expanding effective investment, boosting consumer demand, and strengthening support for enterprises, to create more favorable conditions for the sustained and steady recovery of the industrial economy.