MNI DATA IMPACT: China Industrial Profits Fall In Jan/Feb

     BEIJING (MNI) - Here are MNI's key highlights from the Industrial Profits

data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.

     - Industrial profits for the first two months of 2019 fell 14.0% y/y,

extending the 1.9% y/y decline seen in December last year and falling for a

fourth consecutive month.

     - Losses in the automotive, petroleum processing, steel and chemical

industries have dragged overall industrial profit growth down by 14.2 percentage

points. If these sectors are excluded, profit growth would have increased by

0.2% y/y.

     - Profits were dampened by declining ex-factory product prices, along with

a slowdown in production and sales. National holidays for the Chinese New Year

also had a negative impact. Ex-factory prices in the automotive, petroleum

processing, steel and chemical sectors decreased 0.4%, 1.3%, 2.5% and 2.3% y/y

respectively.

     - Profits in the automotive industry fell 42% y/y, compared to the 1.8%

fall for the same period last year. Oil, coal and other fuel processing

industries fell 70.4% y/y, compared to the 17.6% gain a year earlier.

     - By end-Feb, the debt-to-asset ratio of large-scale industrial enterprises

tracked by the NBS was 56.9%, down 0.2 percentage point y/y. The ratio for

state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was 58.6%, down 1.0 percentage points y/y.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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

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