China's major industrial enterprises registered an overall profit of 276.4 billion yuan (US$33.3 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 17.2 percent over the same period last year, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics Monday.

In China, all state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises with annual sales income of more than 5 million yuan fall in the category of "major industrial enterprises".

The statistics also showed that the country's overall industrial efficiency composite index stood at 162.77 points in the first three months, up 7.76 points year on year.

The state-owned enterprises registered 144.3 billion yuan of profit, up 18 percent, slightly higher than the overall growth rate for all major industrial enterprises.

Of the 39 major industrial categories, mining industries, such as the coal, oil and non-ferrous metal industries, have enjoyed growth by large margins, while the profits made by sectors like transport equipment manufacturing, building materials, chemical fiber industry and power generation suffered a downslide.

(China Daily April 26, 2005)