Industrial profit growth slows

A worker welds a pipeline for an offshore oil rig at a plant in Qingdao, Shandong province. Aggregate industrial profit through April rose 10 percent more than a year earlier, compared with a 10.1 percent gain in the first quarter. Jiang Zuofeng / For China Daily

Experts say May figures likely to be better; vehicle sector stands out

China's industrial profit gains in April slowed, dragged down by a slump in the electronics, power and wine industries. Analysts said this was in line with other weak April data, but they were more optimistic about May's data.

Profits generated from industrial enterprises with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3.2 million) reported 9.6 percent year-on-year growth in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, down from the 10.7 percent growth recorded in March.

Aggregate industrial profit through April rose 10 percent more than a year earlier, compared with a 10.1 percent gain in the first quarter.

Profit growth in most of the industries was stable, while a sharp growth drop in a few industries, including electronic products, electricity production and supply, and wine and other beverages, was behind most of the slump.

Growth of industrial profit for electronic products in April grew 35.2 percent year-over-year, down from a 63.42 percent gain in March.

The electric production and supply sector was down 22.4 percentage points over the previous month, while the wine industry fell 27.9 percentage points.

Profit remains concentrated in a few industries. In absolute terms, the automotive industry contributed the largest share of newly added profit of 41.25 billion yuan in April. The power industry ranked second, with 29.21 billion yuan in newly added profit.

The two industries, along with electrical and mechanical machinery, non-metallic minerals and the electronics industry, made up 78.6 percent of the 41 industrial sectors' total profits.

While slumping coal prices sent the profits in the power industry higher, they also dealt a heavy blow to the coal-mining and smelting industry, whose profit plunged 42 percent year-on-year in the year's first four months.

Ferrous metallurgy, mainly steel manufacturing, reported a 11.3 percent profit slump, while nonferrous metallurgy's profit dropped 5.9 percent, NBS said.

Growth stabilized - April data preview	Jan-April industrial added value up 8.7%