CORRECTION: China Sep Industrial Profit Growth At Record Level

--Fixes Hed

     BEIJING (MNI) - Chinese industrial companies saw profit growth surge by a

record level in September on rising production, sales and prices, the National

Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

     The combined profits of industrial firms rose 27.7% year-on-year to

CNY662.18 billion in September, up 3.7 percentage points from the 24.0% y/y

growth rate in August. The September growth rate was the highest since data on

industrial profits became available in February 2012, according to Wind

Information.

     He Ping, an economist at NBS, attributed the profit surge to increased

industrial output, which rose 6.6% year-on-year in September, up 0.6 percentage

point from August, and to industrial companies' primary business income, which

increased 10.8% y/y, compared with 9.6% growth in August.

     Prices charged for industrial goods also increased, contributing to profit

growth, He said.

     "In September, factory prices went up 6.9% y/y, 0.6 percentage point higher

than that in August. And the buying prices for industrial manufacturers went up

8.5% y/y, 0.8 percentage points higher than August," He said. "According to our

calculation, the rising factory prices brought an increase of industrial

companies' primary income to CNY652.6 billion, while rising material prices led

to a rising of costs by CNY516.5 billion. So the rising prices caused the

industrial companies profits to increase by CNY136.2 billion, CNY8.9 billion

higher than that in August."

     He also singled out the electricity, winery and electronics sectors as

having seen rapid growth in September, boosting overall industrial profit

growth.

     Out of the 41 main industrial sectors, 39 saw profit growth in the first

three quarters of the year, the NBS said.

     From January to September, total industrial profits rose 22.8% to CNY5.58

trillion, accelerating from the 21.6% gain in the first eight months and sharply

higher than the 8.4% growth in the same period of last year.

     Income of industrial firms' main businesses rose 12.5% to CNY90.5 trillion

in the January to September period, compared with 12.7% growth in the first

eight months of the year, the NBS said.

     In the year to date, profits of state-owned enterprises rose 47.6% to

CNY1.26 trillion, compared with 46.3% growth in the first eight months of the

year.

     Profits of share-issuing enterprises rose 24.6% y/y to CNY3.91 trillion,

compared with the 23.3% increase in the January-August period. Profits of

manufacturing firms rose 19.6% y/y to CNY4.90 trillion, up from 18.6% in the

first eight months.

     Mining sector profits were 4.7 times higher year-on-year in the first three

quarters, rising to CNY369.2 billion, lower than the gain of 5.9 times in the

first eight months but much higher than the 62.1% fall in the same period last

year.

     Profits of the coal processing sector rose 7.2 times y/y from January to

September, compared with a surge of 9.6 times in the first eight months of the

year, the NBS said. Profits of the ferrous metal processing sector rose 1.2

times as of the end of September, compared with 1.1 times growth from January to

August.

     Power production industry profits decreased 18.3% y/y to CNY316.97 billion,

compared with a drop of 22.6% in the first eight months of the year.

     The supply-side structural reform has had positive effects on the

debt-to-asset ratios of industrial companies, which fell 0.6 percentage point to

55.7% by the end of September, He Ping said.

     The profit ratio was 6.17% year-on-year in September, up 0.51 percentage

point from last September, He said.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: vince.morkri@marketnews.com

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