China's state-owned company profits edge down in H1: finance ministry

[SHANGHAI] Profits at China's non-financial state-owned companies in January-June slipped a little from a year earlier, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

In the first half, profits were 1.23 trillion yuan (S$271.1 billion), or 0.1 per cent lower, it said, while revenue was 21.8 trillion yuan, a drop of about 6 per cent.

According to ministry data, profits have been down all this year, and performance has been steadily improving since January-February, when they were down 21.5 per cent from a year earlier.

For January-May, profits were off 3.3 per cent, it said.

The ministry said enterprises in transport, chemicals, electronics and electricity production enjoyed "considerable" profits. Coal, iron and steel, petroleum and petrochemicals firms were in the black but profits fell during the six-month period.

Nonferrous metals firms posted 4.46 billion yuan in losses, it said.

REUTERS