Workers assemble engines at an assembly line at a workshop of Weichai Power Co., Ltd. in Weifang city, east China's Shandong province, April 22, 2021. (GUO XULEI / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China's major industrial companies saw their profits maintain steady expansion in the first five months of the year amid recovering market demand and improving business performances, official data showed on Sunday.

Industrial firms with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about US$3.09 million ) raked in around 3.42 trillion yuan in total profits during the period, soaring 83.4 percent year on year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows.

Of all 41 industrial sectors, nearly 70 percent registered yearly profit increases in May, and 80 percent saw profits surpass 2019 levels, according to NBS senior statistician Zhu Hong

Compared with the 2019 level, profits of major industrial firms rose 48 percent in the first five months. The expansion put average January-May growth in 2020 and 2021 at 21.7 percent, NBS data shows.

In May alone, the profits of major industrial firms climbed 36.4 percent from a year earlier to 829.92 billion yuan.

Of all 41 industrial sectors, nearly 70 percent registered yearly profit increases in May, and 80 percent saw profits surpass 2019 levels, according to NBS senior statistician Zhu Hong.

Specifically, the raw materials manufacturing sector maintained a robust profit increase last month, and the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector logged accelerated profit growth, Zhu noted.

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Boosted by rising market demand and price rises for bulk commodities, sectors related to metal smelting and processing, raw chemical materials and product manufacturing, as well as oil and coal, posted fast profit expansions in May, according to Zhu.

The pharmaceutical manufacturing industry also saw strong growth, driven by demand for pandemic-related medical supplies such as COVID-19 vaccines and testing kits. The sector's profits soared 85.7 percent over a year earlier, jumping by 23.6 percentage points from April.

Moreover, the business operations of major industrial companies continued to improve last month, with increasing profitability, declining costs and decreasing debt-to-asset ratios, NBS data shows.

"In general, China's industrial firms continued their recovery momentum in May, but the recovery is still not on solid footing, given the companies' unbalanced profitability," said Zhu.

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In the next stage, China will step up efforts to return commodity prices to supply and demand fundamentals, stimulate the vitality of market entities, and sustain the stable growth of industrial firms, Zhu added.