Chinese manufacturers profits decline 23 per cent

China's large industrial enterprises with revenues over 5 million yuan ($732,000) saw profits decreased by 22.9 per cent to 850.2 billion yuan year-on-year in the first five months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

According to NBS, profits of large state-owned and state-controlled industrial enterprises dropped 41.5 per cent year-on-year to 246.7 billion yuan; while that of collective-owned enterprises fell 0.7 per cent to 20 billion yuan and of corporate enterprises fell 24.1 per cent to 454.3 billion yuan.

Profits of foreign funded enterprises, and enterprises funded from Hong Kong , Macao and Taiwan decreased 22.4 per cent to 243.0 billion yuan while that of private enterprises increased by 2.4 per cent to 230.3 billion yuan, according to NBS.

Petroleum processing and coking showed profit of 44.8 billion yuan as against a net loss of 44.9 billion yuan and architectural materials industry boomed 8.6 per cent year-on-year, according to NBS.

Coal and mining industry's profits grew 4.2 per cent and electric power industry ballooned 14.6 per cent.

However, sectors like oil and natural gas saw profits fall 75.8 per cent and iron and steel industry dropped 97.2 per cent on a year-on-year.