China's industrial companies with annual sales exceeding five million yuan (US$646,000) recorded a 43.8-percent surge in profits in the first two months of this year, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Tuesday.

 

The growth rate was 22 percentage points higher than the same period last year, according to the report.

 

Total profits in the first two months soared to 293.2 billion yuan (US$37.9 billion), maintaining last year's fast growth of 31 percent.

 

Profits of the iron and steel sector more than tripled, the fastest growth among 39 major industries, followed by a 66.7-percent growth of the electric power industry, 57.3 percent in coal mining, 68.4 percent in communications and transportation equipment manufacturing and 31 percent in the nonferrous metals melting and pressing processing sector.

 

Petroleum processing and coking reported profits totaling 14.8 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) in the first two months after a net loss of 4.6 billion yuan last year.

 

But profits of petroleum and natural gas exploration companies dropped 18.6 percent year-on-year, and those of electronic communication equipment manufacturing fell by 14.2 percent.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2007)