Due to factors such as epidemic prevention and control measures and a downturn in the real estate market, the profits of Chinese industrial companies will drop by 4% year-on-year in 2022, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on Tuesday (January 31). The total profit of industrial enterprises above designated size in the country in 2022 will be 8.4 trillion yuan (about 1.6 trillion Singapore dollars), a year-on-year decrease of 4%.

Zhu Hong, senior statistician of the Industry Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that in 2022, the industrial economy will generally operate stably, with continued growth in industrial production and sales, and the operating income of industrial enterprises will increase by 5.9% year-on-year. Affected by multiple unexpected factors, combined with a high base in the same period of the previous year, the profits of industrial enterprises fell by 4% year-on-year.

Among them, the profits of iron and steel, petroleum processing and vaccine manufacturing industries have fallen sharply, and the pull-down effect is more obvious. After excluding the above industries, the profits of other industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 5.6% year-on-year. In terms of industries, in 2022, the profits of the mining industry will increase by 48.6% over the previous year, and the profits of the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water will increase by 41.8%.

Among them, the profit of the coal mining industry increased by 44.3%, maintaining rapid growth; the oil and gas mining industry was driven by rising oil prices, and its profit increased by 109.8%; the power industry was driven by factors such as increased electricity demand and a low base during the same period, and its profit increased by 86.3%.

The annual profit of the manufacturing industry decreased by 13.4% year-on-year. Among them, the annual profit of the equipment manufacturing industry increased by 1.7%, continuing the growth trend of the first three quarters. The industry’s profit accounted for 34.3% of all designated industries, an increase of 2 percentage points over the previous year.

In terms of enterprise types, the profit growth rate of state-owned enterprises in 2022 will still be significantly higher than that of private enterprises and foreign enterprises. In 2022, the profits of state-owned holding companies will increase by 3% year-on-year, the annual profits of private companies will drop by 7.2%, and the annual profits of foreign and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-invested companies will drop by 9.5%, the largest drop. Zhu Hong said that although the profits of industrial enterprises will decline in 2022, the upstream and downstream structure of industrial enterprises’ profits will continue to improve. The overall economic operation of the industry improved.

• Based on published Chinese reports