China’s cement production reported good performance in the first seven months of this year, posing a bettering efficiency, sound operation, and growing export. China produced 77,620,800 tons of cement in July 2004. The output in January-July reached 504,036,600 tons, up 17.0 per cent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The cement industry generated 8.595 billion yuan in profits in the first seven months, jumping 230.8 per cent year on year, a record high since 2000.
The number of loss-making enterprises reduced by 334, the amount of losses suffered by was 1.562 billion yuan, down 15.4 per cent year on year, and the coverage of enterprises running in the red was 32.19 per cent, 8.01 percentage points less than the same period of last year. State-owned and holding cement enterprises realized 2.71 billion yuan in profits in the January-July period, soaring 352.4 per cent over the 599 million yuan in profits in the same period last year.
Among them, State-owned enterprises raked in 935 million yuan in profits in the period, soaring 50.94.4 per cent, while the number of State-owned and holding enterprises running in the red reduced by 92, with coverage dropping 10.54 percentage points. Large and midsize enterprises each with annual output exceeding 200,000 tons reported 182 per cent growth in the first seven months.
Regions registered high increases in profits were Zhejiang, with 272 per cent growth, Anhui, up 209.3 per cent, Shandong, up 111.7 per cent, and Jiangsu, up 231.3 per cent. The high growth of profits is attributed to the following factors:
Improving factory prices. The factory price of cement was 13.32 percentage points higher than the same period last year, but lower than the previous month. Sales increase because of the stimulation from fixed assets investment. Sales revenue of cement industry topped 122.667 billion yuan in the first seven months, up 37.0 per cent year on year. Export of cement was 3.169 million tons in January-July, increasing 12.3 per cent year on year, valued at US$107 million, up 18.0 per cent, checking the downward trend of export in the first five months.
