Reporting rapid growth in their business and profits, China's State-owned enterprises performed well in 2004, an official with State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said in Beijing Tuesday.

The official said, both the output and sale of major State-owned enterprises in 2004 have hit a historical high. The yearly yield of crude oil amounts to 197 million tons in 2004, up 4.4 percent over that in 2003 and yearly output of coal to 176 million tons, up 3.5 percent year-on-year.

Figures from the commission show that sale revenue of major State-owned enterprises reaches more than 5.55 trillion yuan (US$671 billion) in 2004, an increase of 25.8 percent on-year, bringing in profit of 478.46 billion yuan (US$58 billion), a rise of 57.6 percent over the same period last year.

With total assets up to 9 trillion yuan, the scale of China's major state-owned enterprises has witnessed a great progress in 2004, he said. Eight Chinese enterprises have been listed among top 500 in the world by Fortune magazine in 2004.

He said in 2004, major State-owned enterprises have made great achievements in optimizing their industrial structures. Enterprises in the sector of oil and coal have further developed their primary businesses and the yield of crude oil, natural gas and coal grew by 13 million tons, 11.6 billion cubic meters and 34.6 million tons respectively in the past year.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2005)