Profits at industrial companies rose 17.2 per cent in August from a year earlier, the first positive month for industrial companies since the second half of last year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
The bureau of Statistics said that the decline in industrial product prices narrowed significantly for two consecutive months, and corporate revenue increased for the first time after three consecutive months of decline, driving industrial profits from a decline to an increase.
The index fell 6.7% in July, down 1.6 percentage points from June, the fifth consecutive month of decline. In March this year, the decline was 19.2%, 3.7 percentage points narrower than the decline in January-February.
Cumulatively, from January to August, the total profit of industrial enterprises in the country was 4,655.82 billion yuan, down 11.7% year-on-year, and 3.8 percentage points narrower than that in January to July. Although the decline has narrowed every month since the beginning of the year, the cumulative indicator has been declining for more than a year as of August.
In the first half of this year, the profits of industrial enterprises fell 16.8 per cent year-on-year, 12.7 per cent in the second quarter and 21.4 per cent in the first quarter.
Due to the epidemic exceeding expectations and superimposed base factors, the profits of industrial enterprises in 2022 fell by 4.0% year-on-year, and fell by 1.1% year-on-year from January to July, the first decline since October 2020. Since then, the cumulative index has continued to decline.
Affected by the sudden outbreak of the epidemic, the indicator fell 38.3% from January to February 2020, but the monthly growth rate turned positive in May of the year, the cumulative growth rate turned positive in October, and the year-on-year growth of 4.1% in 2020, reversing the momentum of 3.3% decline in the previous year. It will grow by 34.3% in 2021.
Sun Xiao, statistician of the Industrial Department of the Bureau of Statistics, interpreted the data and said that with the improvement of the connection between production and sales, the revenue of industrial enterprises gradually improved. From January to August, the operating income of industrial enterprises in the country fell by 0.3% year-on-year, which was 0.2 percentage points narrower than that in January to July. Among them, in August, enterprise revenue increased for the first time after three consecutive months of decline, from a decline of 1.4% in July to an increase of 0.8%, creating favorable conditions for profits to increase from a decline.
In terms of industry, among the 41 industrial categories, the profit growth rate of 30 industries accelerated, or the decline narrowed, and the industry improved by more than 70%.
The profits of the three major categories all improved, and the profits of more than 70% of the industries recovered. From January to August, mining profits fell 20.5% year on year, 0.5 percentage points narrower than that in January to July. Manufacturing profits fell 13.7%, down 4.7 percentage points; Profits in the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water increased by 40.4%, with a growth rate of 2.4 percentage points.
Highlights include: The equipment manufacturing industry profit growth accelerated, from January to August profit growth of 3.6%, the growth rate accelerated from January to July 1.9 percentage points, higher than the industrial average level of 15.3 percentage points, continued to lead the recovery of industrial enterprises profit. Among them, new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, photovoltaic equipment, EMU and other industrial new drivers continue to grow. The profit of the automobile industry increased by 2.4%, the growth rate accelerated by 1.4 percentage points; The electronics sector's profit decline narrowed by 5.8 percentage points.
The profit decline in the raw material manufacturing industry has narrowed significantly. With the gradual recovery of downstream demand, some commodity prices rebounded, from January to August, raw material manufacturing profits fell 42.9% year-on-year, the decline narrowed by 8.0 percentage points from January to July, driving the decline in industrial profits narrowed by 2.5 percentage points, and the improvement of industrial enterprise profits has a greater effect. From the situation in August, the oil processing and steel industries turned into profit from the net loss of the whole industry in the same period last year.
In addition, consumer goods manufacturing earnings continued to improve. From January to August, the profit of the consumer goods manufacturing industry fell by 12.0% year-on-year, which is 1.6 percentage points narrower than that in January to July.
The bureau said profits rebounded across all types of companies. From January to August, the year-on-year profit decline of state-owned holding, foreign investors and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan enterprises narrowed by 3.8 and 1.3 percentage points respectively compared with January to July; In the private sector, the decline narrowed by 6.1 percentage points. The profit decline of large, medium and small enterprises narrowed by 4.1, 3.4 and 3.4 percentage points respectively.
The Bureau of Statistics said that overall, the recovery of industrial enterprises' profits has accelerated significantly, but the cumulative profit decline is still large. In the next stage, we should promote the implementation of various policies and measures, continue to promote new industrialization, and strive to expand effective demand.
The above data is calculated on a comparable basis, taking into account the impact of the calibre adjustment stipulated by the statistical system, the enhancement of statistical law enforcement, the elimination of duplicate data, and the reform of enterprises.
Industrial enterprises above designated size mainly refer to those whose annual main business income is more than 20 million yuan.