China reports 16.2 percent rise in industrial value-added in 1st quarter

China's large industrial enterprises reported 1,441.5 billion yuan of value added in the first quarter of this year, up 16.2 percent over the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

Large industrial enterprises entering the NBS statistics refer to those each with an annual sales revenue of more than 5 million yuan (620,000 US dollars).

NBS spokesman Zheng Jingping said at a press conference that the country's heavy industry rose by 16.3 percent in the period, while that of the light industry went up 16 percent.

Analyzed by products, the output of electricity, coal and rolled steel increased by 13 percent, 9.1 percent and 22.4 percent respectively. The production of microcomputers, mobile phones and fax machines rose by 57.7 percent, 23.9 percent and 34.1 percent, and that of motor vehicles grew by 1.6 percent, with the output of sedans dropping by 2.8 percent.

These large industrial enterprises continued to witness growing profits in the first three months of the year to a total of 165.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 17.4 percent, Zheng said.

Of the total, state-owned and state-holding enterprises registered a profit increase of 14 percent.