China's 469 major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported over 20 percent growth in their total income from principal operations, export volume and profits in the first quarter of 2005 over the same period last year.

According to sources with the Commission for Supervision and Management of State-owned Properties, the enterprises' principal operations turned out 1.9 trillion yuan (226.9 billion US dollars)in revenue, up by 20.9 percent, 4.6 percent down from the same period last year.

As the major driving forces for the rapid growth of the total revenue, the nonferrous metal, coal, chemical, petroleum and petrochemical, transportation and metallurgy industries each experience a growth of over 25 percent in the first quarter.

With the macro-economic control policies by the central government beginning to take effect in some major industries, the rising trend of products in stock started to slow down in the first quarter.

The ratio of sales to output of major state-owned enterprises is 97.4 percent, 0.6 percent higher over the same period last year.

By the end of March, products in stock of major state-owned enterprises were valued at 282.14 billion yuan (34.1 billion US dollars), 19 percent higher over the same period last year. The growth rate was 7.7 percent lower than the fourth quarter of 2004.

Major state-owned enterprises of metallurgy, electronics and chemical industries saw their growth rate of products in stock drop by a larger percent.

In the first quarter, major state-owned enterprises produced a profit of 172.6 billion yuan (20.8 billion US dollars), 23 percent higher over the same period last year but the growth rate dropped by 7.4 percent.