China's industrial profit growth rebounds for second month

[BEIJING] Profit growth at China's industrial firms rebounded for a second month in October, driven by companies in sectors including mining and manufacturing of raw materials.

Industrial profit climbed 24.6 per cent to 818.7 billion yuan (S$175.61 billion) in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Saturday, compared with a 16.3 per cent increase in the previous month.

For the first 10 months of the year, profits increased 42.2 per cent from a year earlier to 7.16 trillion yuan.

"Operations of industrial firms have continued to improve thanks to the policies to secure supplies and stabilize prices," Zhu Hong, a senior statistician with the statistics bureau, said in a statement accompanying the release.

Profitability of consumer goods manufacturing turned positive in October with a rise of 3.6 per cent, after plunging in recent months, Zhu said, as companies prepared for Single's Day shopping spree.

Profits at companies in the mining industry have been soaring this year as prices of commodities from coal to oil surged.

Coal production companies saw profits increased by 438 per cent year-on-year, about 69.6 percentage points higher than the previous month, as the government urged companies to ensure supply amid a power crunch.

BLOOMBERG