NBS: China industrial firms' profits slip 2.3% in 2023

Sizable Chinese industrial enterprises posted a total gross profit of Yuan 7.69 trillion ($1.07 trillion) in 2023, falling by 2.3% on year, according to the latest data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on January 27. However, the pace of the decline was slower by 1.7 percentage points than that for 2022, the NBS data showed.

For December alone, these industrial firms' gross profits climbed by 16.8% on year, making for the fifth consecutive on-year monthly rise, NBS noted.

"The operational scale of industrial enterprises continues to expand, showing strong resilience and creating favorable conditions for the sustained recovery of corporate profits," said Yu Weining, a statistician with NBS.

Last year, sizable industrial enterprises saw their business revenue grow by 1.1% on year to reach Yuan 133.4 trillion, according to NBS.

In parallel, 27 or 65.9% of the 41 industrial sectors NBS tracks saw their profits gain on year in 2023, higher by 12.2 percentage points than in the prior year, the release showed.

Among all China's profitmaking industrial sectors, the coal mining and washing sector achieved the largest gross profits last year, totalling Yuan 762.9 billion, though the total was lower by 25.3% on year, the NBS data indicated.

Meanwhile, the computer, telecommunication and other electronic devices sector ranked second in profitability though total profits were 8.6% lower on year at Yuan 641.1 billion, the statistics showed. The electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sector was third in profits, with these rising by 15.7% on year to Yuan 633.5 billion.

On the other hand, among all sectors surveyed China's steelmaking and processing sector posted the highest growth in on-year profits – 1.57 times – at Yuan 56.5 billion during 2023, the NBS said, citing improved demand for steel and the low base of the previous year.

For the steelmakers' upstream counterparts, profits earned by the country's ferrous mining and processing sector added up to Yuan 55.5 billion, up 6.7% on year, according to the Bureau.

The NBS data also showed that China's nonferrous smelters and fabricators enjoyed a 28% on-year gain in profits to total Yuan 293.1 billion last year, while the nonferrous mining and processing sector saw its profits increase by 8.1% during the same period to Yuan 78.6 billion.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com

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