In the January-February period this year, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector recorded a gross loss of RMB 14.61 billion ($2.1 billion), following a profit recorded in the same period last year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on March 27.
The automotive sector recorded a gross profit of RMB 58.69 billion ($8.3 billion) in the first two months this year, up 50.1 percent year on year.
At the same time, the ferrous metals mining and dressing sector, the metal manufacturing sector and the railway, shipping, aerospace and other transportation equipment manufacturing sector recorded gross profits of RMB 12.88 billion ($1.8 billion), RMB 19.0 billion ($2.7 billion) and RMB 7.89 billion ($1.1 billion) in the given period, up 101.3 percent, 27.8 percent and 90.1 percent year on year, respectively.
In the given period, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 914.06 billion ($128.7 billion), up 10.2 percent year on year.
$1 = RMB 7.0946