In the January-May period this year, of the 41 industrial sectors in China, 16 witnessed year-on-year increases in gross profit, while 24 saw decreases in gross profit, with one sector shifting from a loss to a profit, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In the given period, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector recorded gross profits of RMB 80.2 billion ($12 billion), decreasing by 64.2 percent year on year, 8.5 percentage points faster than the declining pace recorded in the January-April period.
The automotive sector recorded gross profits of RMB 153.38 billion ($22.9 billion) in the first five months, down 37.5 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 33.68 billion ($5.04 billion), RMB 68.55 billion ($10.3 billion) and RMB 19.28 billion ($2.9 billion), down 0.7 percent, 9.8 percent and 3.2 percent year on year, respectively.
In the January-May period, the aggregate gross profit of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China amounted to RMB 3.441 trillion ($0.52 trillion), up 1.0 percent year on year.