Employees assemble cars at a vehicle manufacturer in Bozhou, East China's Anhui Province on July 12, 2022. Assembly lines at the manufacturer are busy stamping, welding, painting and putting together new cars despite hot weather. Photo: cnsphoto

China's industrial profits dropped in November, weighed down by factors like the COVID-19 epidemic and weakening demand, but the profit picture improved for some sectors such as equipment manufacturing, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday.

In the first 11 months of this year, industrial enterprises above designated size saw revenues increase 6.7 percent on a yearly basis, down from 7.6 percent in the first 10 months. 

Major industrial enterprises' total profits stood at 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) in the first 11 months, down 3.6 percent year-on-year. The drop widened from 3 percent in the first 10 months, the NBS data showed.

However, the NBS data showed that the profit picture brightened for some industrial sectors. For example, profits of equipment manufacturing industries rose by 3.3 percent in the first 11 months, up 0.1 percentage points compared with the first 10 months. 

The electrical machinery industry saw profits rise 29.7 percent from January to November, compared with 29 percent in the first 10 months, partly driven by the rapid development of China's new energy industry.

Driven by semiconductor equipment, medical equipment and other high-tech products, profits of the special equipment industry rose by 3.2 percent from January to November, up 2.9 percentage points compared with the first 10 months.

Makers of consumer goods maintained relatively high growth momentum, as China's efforts to guarantee supplies for people's daily lives continued to take effect.

In the first 11 months, producers of liquor, beverages and refined tea saw profits increase 21.5 percent on a yearly basis, the same as in the first 10 months. Food manufacturers saw profits grow 8.4 percent from January to November.

Zhu Hong, a senior statistician of the NBS, said that the resurgence of the epidemic restricted the profit recovery of industrial enterprises in the short term.

China will better coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, ensure the smoothness of industry and supply chains, focus on expanding domestic demand, stimulate the vitality of market players, and create more favorable conditions for the stabilization and recovery of the industrial economy, Zhu said.