Chinese industrial profits rebound in Sept

BEIJING -- Profits at China's major industrial companies rebounded after five consecutive months of falls with 7.8-percent year-on-year growth in September, official figures showed on Saturday.

Profits for the companies, or those with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan ($3.15 million), hit 464.3 billion yuan last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

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This is the first monthly profit rise for China's industrial firms after a string of declines since April.

The profits reached 3.52 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, down 1.8 percent year-on-year, narrowing from a 3.1-percent decline seen in the first eight months.

Profits for State-run industrial enterprises, joint ventures and overseas-invested companies dipped, while private and collectively-owned firms recorded profit gains, the figures showed. This was a similar trend in the January-August period.

State-run firms saw profits decline by 11.8 percent year-on-year to 1.0 trillion yuan in the first nine months. Private sector profits surged 15.6 percent to hit 1.1 trillion yuan during this period.

Profits for foreign-funded companies and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan fell 11.4 percent year-on-year to 809.3 billion yuan.

The ferrous metal sector was hit the hardest, as profits dived by 68 percent year-on-year. Oil refining, coal and nuclear fuel processing companies saw profits turn into losses.

Profits in power generation and food processing sectors, however, increased by 44.6 percent and 15.2 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The main business revenues of major industrial firms in the first nine months totaled 65.72 trillion yuan, up 10.2 percent over the previous year, the figures showed.