China's 38 major state-owned textile enterprises saw their profits drop by nearly 40 percent in the first quarter of 2005, said sources with the Commission for Supervision and Management of State-owned Properties under the State Council on Thursday.

In the first three months, 38 major state-owned enterprises in the textile industry reported an income of 15.98 billion yuan (1.9 billion US dollars) in their major businesses, with an increase rate of 0.5 percent, and had costs of 13.96 billion yuan (1.7 billion US dollars), 2.7 percent higher than last quarter.

With an export volume of 2.73 billion yuan (329.7 million US dollars), or 20.5 percent higher than last year, those enterprises saw a profit of 290 million yuan (35 million US dollars), down 38. 6 percent.