The total assets of China's 424 major state-owned enterprises exceeded 16 trillion yuan (US$2.1 trillion) by the end of last month as revenues and profits kept rising, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

 

The companies' combined assets grew 14 percent, 0.7 percentage point faster than the level of last year's same period or 0.5 percentage point higher than the first quarter of this year.

 

Assets of the businesses in non-ferrous metal, construction, automotive and metallurgical sectors rose more than 15 percent on average.

 

Meanwhile, the 424 major SOEs reported combined profits of 452.75 billion yuan (US$59.57 billion), up 36.2 percent from the same period last year, with 62 of them earning 403.66 billion yuan (US$53.11 billion) in total.

 

These SOEs, which are administered by the central or provincial governments, recorded 4.73 trillion yuan (US$622.3 billion) in business takings, up 20.4 percent over the same period last year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2007)