2012 profits slow at China's central SOEs

BEIJING - China's State-owned enterprises administered by the state-asset regulator saw profits increase 2.7 percent from a year earlier in 2012, official data showed on Friday.

The 116-strong enterprises made total profits of 1.3 trillion yuan ($207 billion) last year, according to State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission figures.

The growth figure was down from 6.4 percent in 2011 and 40.2 percent in 2010, mainly due to poor performances of SOEs in shipment, building materials and steel businesses amid the economic slowdown, according to SASAC data.

However, it was up from the minus 11.8-percent growth in the first quarter of 2012, minus 16.1 percent in the second, and 2.1 percent in the third, showing a recovering trend.

The aggregate revenue of the SOEs increased 9.4 percent year on year to 22.5 trillion yuan last year, while they handed in 1.9 trillion yuan in taxation to the state coffers, a rise of 13 percent from a year earlier, data showed.