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Nearly 20% of Zhejiang firms see losses

By Tu Lei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-07-18 14:07

The Economic and Trade Commission of Zhejiang Province said that 10,700 enterprises, or 19.6 percent of all firms, were in the red between January and May of this year, according to yesterday's Xinhuanet.

In the newly-released report, the commission said Zhejiang's industrial economy is in a tight-running status, due to tight macro-economic policy, floating international economy and inflation pressure.

Figures show the increasing rates of industrial added-value and total profits from January to June of this year dropped 5.5 percent and 17.8 percent year-on-year.

The lost sectors are mainly in the leather, chemical fiber, garment and printing industries.

In the first five months of this year, the oil processing industry stood at a loss of 1.55 billion yuan ($227.08 million) from a profit of 2.89 billion yuan in the same period of last year.

Food and paper-making industries saw profit increases of more than 50 percent, and the profits of chemical and rubber industries went up 50 percent as well.

Though pharmaceutical industry profits were in a slump, they have been increasing since last year.

The shipping industry has developed most rapidly, with the output reaching 10 billion yuan between January and May of this year, and the output, profit and investment of the recycling industry were up 40, 110 and 80 percent respectively.

Statistics from the Zhejiang Business Administration Bureau show that 1,200 enterprises closed their doors in the first half of this year, making it the first time in the past 10 years that this many businesses have folded.