China's industrial enterprises' profit decline narrows in Nov

China's major industrial enterprises saw a smaller decline in profits in November, with the total profits falling by 7.3 percent year on year to 799.4 billion ($109.5 billion) from October's 10 percent, CGTN calculations based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday.

Notable growth areas include the nonferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, which posted a 20.2 percent increase in profits, while the electricity, heat production and supply industries saw a 13.5 percent rise. 

The textile industry reported a profit growth of 4.6 percent while the computer, communication and electronic equipment manufacturing sectors grew 2.9 percent.

Yu Weining, a statistician with the NBS's Industrial Department, attributed the improved performance to the ongoing impact of policy measures aimed at stimulating industrial growth, which have helped stabilize industrial production and contributed to a steady recovery in corporate profits.

"Despite a continued overall decline in profits, the policy combination effect has helped narrow the decline, with a notable increase in the profitability of high-end, intelligent and green manufacturing industries," Yu wrote in a statement on the NBS website.

In November, the high-end equipment manufacturing sector saw rapid profit increases, with opto-electronic device manufacturing growing by 41.1 percent and aerospace-related equipment manufacturing rising by 14.3 percent.

The growth in smart and automated products has led to profit gains in related industries. Wearable smart devices, graphics computing saw a profit increase of 90.3 percent while profits of measuring instruments grew 31.3 percent.

Yu noted that while industrial profits continue to decline, the narrowing of losses signaled an improving efficiency of the industries as the benefits of policy measures have emerged.

Meanwhile, officials at a national work conference charting the course of the industrial and information technology sector for 2025, held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday, projected that the value-added output of major industrial enterprises would grow by around 5.7 percent year on year in 2024. 

The manufacturing sector is expected to remain stable with continued expansion in manufacturing investment. Meanwhile, a national industrial-financial cooperation platform is set to help enterprises raise more than 1 trillion yuan in funds.

(Cover via CFP)