China's industrial firms reported 1.56 trillion yuan (US$208 billion) 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.