In the January-April period this year, the ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector in China recorded a gross loss of RMB 22.2 billion ($3.1 billion), shifting from a net profit of RMB 390 million in the same period last year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on May 27.
The domestic automotive sector recorded a gross profit of RMB 142.79 billion ($20.1 billion) in the first four months this year, up 29.0 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 21.25 billion ($3.0 billion), RMB 39.95 billion ($5.6 billion) and RMB 24.21 billion ($3.4 billion) in the given period, up 64.2 percent, 4.6 percent and up 40.7 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 2.09469 trillion ($0.295 trillion), up 4.3 percent year on year.