SOEs' profits rise 3.6%

China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported net profits of 831.79 billion yuan (131.4 billion U.S. dollars) during the first 11 months of 2011, up 3.6 percent year-on-year, the country's SOEs regulator said Monday.

The growth rate was sharply down from the 50.1-percent increase recorded during the corresponding period of 2010. Only 69.5 percent of centrally administered SOEs posted year-on-year profit increases during the first 11 months of the year, said Wang Yong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

Revenues of centrally administered SOEs climbed 22.6 percent year-on-year to reach 18.4 trillion yuan during the Jan.-Nov. period, a growth rate slower than the 34.7-percent surge reported during the same period last year, Wang said.

Despite growth rate declines, the companies handed in 1.52 trillion yuan of taxes from January to November, an increase of 24.8 percent from one year earlier, he added.

Rising labor and raw material costs, tightened credit supply and feeble recoveries in major economies resulted in the slower growth rates for the companies' revenues and profits, said Liu Cheng, professor with the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

"The results are in line with domestic and global economic conditions, and do not necessarily mean that the companies' entrepreneurial capabilities have deteriorated," he said.

Next year will be a tough one for the companies as the global economic slowdown caused by the Eurozone debt crisis and sluggish growth in the United States and Japan will likely curtail China's external demand, hamper Chinese exports as well as hinder growth in the country's ocean transportation industry, shipbuilding and overseas projects, Wang said.

Meanwhile, he warned of high commodity prices in 2012, partly because of a depreciating U.S. dollar, global excess liquidity and rampant speculation. "That will also weigh on the companies' profitability, especially those involved in manufacturing industries," Wang said.

Further, strengthened inflationary pressures and looming asset bubbles in emerging markets will create more room for upward movement of global commodity prices, he added.