Chinese industrial profits rebound in September

Profits at China's major industrial companies rebounded after five consecutive months of falls with 7.8-percent year-on-year growth in September, official figures showed on Saturday.

Profits for the companies, or those with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (3.15 million U.S. dollars), hit 464.3 billion yuan last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

This is the first monthly profit rise for China's industrial firms after a string of declines since April.

The profits reached 3.52 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, down 1.8 percent year-on-year, narrowing from a 3.1-percent decline seen in the first eight months.

Profits for state-run industrial enterprises, joint ventures and overseas-invested companies dipped, while private and collectively-owned firms recorded profit gains, the figures showed. This was a similar trend in the January-August period.

State-run firms saw profits decline by 11.8 percent year-on-year to 1.0 trillion yuan in the first nine months. Private sector profits surged 15.6 percent to hit 1.1 trillion yuan during this period.

Profits for foreign-funded companies and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan fell 11.4 percent year-on-year to 809.3 billion yuan.

The ferrous metal sector was hit the hardest, as profits dived by 68 percent year-on-year. Oil refining, coal and nuclear fuel processing companies saw profits turn into losses.

Profits in power generation and food processing sectors, however, increased by 44.6 percent and 15.2 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The main business revenues of major industrial firms in the first nine months totaled 65.72 trillion yuan, up 10.2 percent over the previous year, the figures showed.