China industrial firms' profits slip 2.3% in 2023

In 2023, significant Chinese industrial enterprises reported a total gross profit of Yuan 7.69 trillion ($1.07 trillion), marking a 2.3% decline compared to the previous year, according to data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on 27 January. However, the rate of decline was 1.7 percentage points slower than that observed in 2022. For December alone, gross profits of these industrial firms increased by 16.8% y-o-y, marking the fifth consecutive monthly rise, as noted by NBS.

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

Last year, the business revenue of sizable industrial enterprises grew by 1.1% y-o-y, reaching 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.

In 2023, China's coal mining and washing sector emerged as the most profitable among the country's profit-making industrial sectors, with total gross profits amounting to Yuan 762.9 billion. However, this total represented a 25.3% decrease compared to the previous year, as indicated by NBS data.

The computer, telecommunication, and other electronic devices sector secured the second position in terms of profitability, with total profits of Yuan 641.1 billion, marking an 8.6% decline y-o-y. The electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sector claimed the third spot, experiencing a 15.7% y-o-y increase in profits, reaching Yuan 633.5 billion.

Contrastingly, China's steelmaking and processing sector showcased the highest growth in y-o-y profits among all surveyed sectors in 2023, with profits surging by 1.57 times to reach Yuan 56.5 billion. This growth was attributed to improved demand for steel and the low base of the previous year, as reported by NBS.

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.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and Bigmint.