China industrial companies post rapid profit growth

A worker assembles a robotic arm at a factory in Foshan, Guangdong province. [Provided to China Daily]

BEIJING - China's major industrial companies registered robust profit growth in the first two months of the year, fresh evidence of a stabilizing economy.

In January and February, industrial enterprises reported a 31.5 percent profit increase year on year, to the value of 1.02 trillion yuan ($148.5 billion), according to a National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) statement Monday.

The growth outpaced that in December 2016 by 29.2 percentage points, and that in 2016 by 23 percentage points.

China's major industrial firms ended their profit losses in 2015, reaping good returns in 2016 on the back of a construction boom.

NBS statistician He Ping attributed the recovery of industrial company profit in January and February to increased industrial production, raw material price increases and an uptick in profitability.

The earnings recovery was uneven across sectors, with coal mines, oil refineries and chemicals witnessing increased profits, boosted by soaring raw material prices, according to He.

The profitability of the main business of industrial companies edged up 0.8 percentage points year on year to 5.92 percent in January and February.

China's economy grew 6.7 percent year on year in 2016, slowing from 6.9 percent in 2015.