(Yicai Global) Oct. 21 -- Earnings at state-owned enterprises directly run by China’s central government were the highest last month than for any September in the past 10 years amid the country’s rapid economic recovery from the coronavirus. 

Total profit rose 4.3 percent from a year earlier to CNY204.6 billion (USD30.6 billion), the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said at a press conference yesterday. The SASAC has 97 central companies under its administration.

After factories and other businesses were forced to shut earlier this year as part of a national effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, manufacturers were the first to gain traction once lockdowns began easing in April, with the recovery kicking in over the past quarter.

Almost all of the central SOEs reversed the poor situation faced in the first half of this year to return to a normal business development trajectory, SASAC Secretary General Peng Huagang said.

In the third quarter, the central SOEs made CNY474.8 billion in net profit, up 35 percent. Revenue rose almost 2 percent to CNY7.8 trillion (USD1.2 trillion) in the first quarterly increase since the Covid-19 outbreak.

But some did not do as well. Those enterprises in the fields of petroleum, petrochemicals and air transport were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Firms in these sectors logged CNY913.4 billion in net profit in the first three quarters, down nearly 14 percent, Peng said.

The SOEs invested CNY250 billion in new infrastructure -- mostly fifth-generation networks, smart grids, and industrial internet -- in the first nine months of this year. And the country's three major telecom operators finished this year’s 5G base station construction quota ahead of schedule.

Spending is rising as the pandemic is easing while effective investment continues to go to important lifeline areas of the economy, such as petroleum and petrochemical, power generation, machinery manufacturing, communications, and key metallurgical industries, Peng said, adding that investment in these fields grew more than 15 percent.

Investment in fixed assets, excluding real estate, totaled CNY1.8 trillion in the first three quarters, up over 11 percent. 

Editor: Emmi Laine