Profits of China's SOEs continue to drop

BEIJING -- The profits of China's state-owned enterprises have continued to drop in 2012 amid global economic headwinds, new data has demonstrated.

The SOE's profits in the first seven months of the year fell 13.2 percent year-on-year to 1.2 trillion yuan ($190.5 billion), according to a statement posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance.

On a monthly basis, the SOEs' combined profits in July dropped 11.6 percent from June, the ministry said.

During the January-July period, the tobacco, power and auto industries saw big profit gains, while the chemicals, nonferrous metals, transportation, petrochemical and construction materials industries experienced steep declines.

Chinese SOEs saw revenues grow 10.4 percent year-on-year to 23.29 trillion yuan in the first seven months, the statement said.

Their net sales margin ratio came in at 3.8 percent, down 1.1 percentage points from a year ago, while the rate of return on equity was 3.4 percent, down one percentage point year-on-year.

In breakdown, the profits of centrally administered SOEs slid 10.7 percent from a year earlier to 823.67 billion yuan during January-July, while SOEs under local governments saw profits decrease 18.3 percent to 376.33 billion yuan.

The report does not include SOEs in the financial sector.