the national bureau of statistics released on march 27, the first two months this year industry profits, according to the epidemic prevention and control as a whole and effective sustainable economic and social development, market demand at home and abroad stable recovery from a lower base and on new year's day, the same period, sales growth, industrial production speed recovery business revenues, profits, profit levels significantly. in the first two months of this year, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size in china totaled 1.114.01 billion yuan, up 1.79 times year on year, up 72.1 percent over the same period in 2019, and up 31.2 percent on average in the two years, continuing the sound trend of rapid growth since the second half of last year.
"multiple factors have driven rapid growth in industrial profits." "said zhu hong, a senior statistician in the industry department of the national bureau of statistics. in the first two months of last year, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size fell by 38.3 percent year on year due to the impact of the epidemic. in the second quarter of 2019, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size dropped by 14.0 percent year on year, further lowering the base. during the spring festival this year, many places advocated the local spring festival, the start time of enterprises was significantly extended, and the situation of employees on duty was also significantly better than in previous years. from january to february, the average number of employees in industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 3.0% year on year, and the increase of enterprise employment strongly promoted the acceleration of industrial enterprises' production and improved efficiency.
industrial production and sales growth accelerated, driving a marked increase in profits. since the beginning of the year, market demand has continued to pick up, industrial enterprises have continued to recover steadily, and production and sales have accelerated significantly compared with the same period last year. from january to february, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size grew by 35.1% year on year, an average growth of 8.1% in the two years. operating revenue increased 45.5 percent year on year, with a two-year average growth of 9.4 percent. industrial production and sales have reached a good level in recent years, creating favorable conditions for the improvement of business efficiency.
statistics show that more than 90 percent of the industry profits increased, and nearly 60 percent of the industry profits doubled. in the first two months of this year, among the 41 industrial categories, 38 industries saw their profits increase year on year, two industries saw their profits decrease, and one industry remained flat. the industry's growth rate exceeded 90%. among them, 24 industries saw profit growth of more than 100%. from the two-year average, 32 industries saw profit growth, with an increase of 78.0%.
the loss of enterprises was significantly reduced, and the contribution of enterprises turning around losses was outstanding. in the first two months of this year, the losses of loss-making industrial enterprises above designated size were reduced by 28.6 percent year on year, a significant reduction. at the end of february, the loss of industrial enterprises above designated size was 27.1 percent, 9.0 percentage points lower than the same period last year. of the loss-making enterprises in the same period last year, 47.2 percent achieved profits in the first two months of this year, driving the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size up by 96.1 percentage points, and turning around loss-making enterprises made a prominent contribution to driving profit growth.
in terms of specific industries, the equipment and high-tech manufacturing industries have played an obvious driving role. in the first two months of this year, the profits of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing increased by 7.07 times and 3.08 times respectively year on year. from the two-year average, the increase was 55.3% and 60.2% respectively. among them, the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry benefited from the rapid increase in the demand for vaccines, the rapid growth of epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic products and other factors, and the profit increased 95.4% year on year.
in addition, the raw material manufacturing profit growth trend is good. in the first two months of this year, the profit of the raw material manufacturing industry increased 3.46 times year on year, an average growth of 46.4 percent in the two years. driven by rising product prices and low inventory raw material costs, profit margins of enterprises in related industries rose significantly. among them, the oil, coal and other fuel processing industry from the loss of the same period to the current period of profit, a new profit of 57.70 billion yuan; profits of the chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry increased 4.98 times year on year. the profit of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry increased by 2.71 times and that of nonferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry by 2.58 times, driven by the recovery of investment, the increase of downstream demand and the rise of metal commodity prices. the above 4 industries combined to drive the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 47.9 percentage points year-on-year.
in addition, the data showed that the cost pressure of industrial enterprises significantly eased, and the profit margin recovered significantly. in the first two months of this year, the cost per 100 yuan of operating income of industrial enterprises above designated size decreased by 1.16 yuan year-on-year, and the unit cost fell to a relatively low level in recent years. expenses per 100 yuan of operating revenue decreased by 1.38 yuan.
"the lower cost level has expanded the profit space of enterprises." zhu said. in the first two months of this year, the profit margin of industrial enterprises above designated size was 6.60 percent, up 3.15 percentage points year on year, indicating a significant increase in profitability.
"overall, the efficience of industrial enterprises situation continued rapid recovery, but also want to see, the situation is still grim, sophisticated domestic epidemic prevention and control is not relaxed, industry efficiency improvement is not balanced, part of the consumer goods industry profits have not recovered to normal level before the outbreak, the industrial economy still need to further consolidate the basis of full recovery." zhu said the next stage will speed up the construction of a new pattern of development to create favorable conditions for the sustained and stable recovery of the industrial economy.
source: state-owned assets and administration commission of the state council