(Yicai) Sept. 28 -- Thanks partly to the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector, profits have surged at China’s large industrial enterprises in the first eight months, with the electronics industry contributing more than 60 percent to the profit growth.

From January to August, Chinese industrial enterprises above a designated size -- that is, firms with annual revenue from their core business of at least CNY20 million (USD3 million) -- logged total profits of CNY5.3 trillion (USD789.5 billion), up 15.7 percent from the same period last year. 

The rise in August was 4.2 percent year-on-year, down 7 percentage points from the rate in the previous month, but this was mainly due to the high base of comparison from last year, according to statistics released today by the National Bureau of Statistics.

From January to August, the revenue of the large industrial enterprises reached CNY93.1 trillion (USD13.9 trillion), up 6.6 percent from the same period last year, with a growth rate 0.1 percentage point faster than that from January to July. 

Driven by new technologies connected to AI, the profits of the electronics industry soared 110 percent in the first eight months from a year ago, contributing 62 percent to the total growth. The profits of the specialized electronic material manufacturing industry skyrocketed 230 percent, and for manufacturing of optoelectronic devices, semiconductor discrete devices, and electronic circuits, the profits rose 72 percent, 52 percent, and 49 percent, respectively.

The high-tech manufacturing industry saw a 55 percent rise in profits in the first eight months from the same period last year. Amid increased computing infrastructure construction, the profits of the fiber optic production and fiber optic cable manufacturing industry surged 530 percent and 100 percent, respectively. The profits for manufacturing of computers, computer peripherals, as well as industrial control computers and systems soared 390 percent, 260 percent, and 130 percent, respectively.

Other industries benefited from the rise in prices of international crude oil and non-ferrous metals, with profits for the raw material manufacturing industry rising 47 percent in the first eight months from a year earlier. There was a rise of 51 percent for the chemical industry and 83 percent for the non-ferrous industry, while the petroleum processing industry turned losses into profits.

Looking ahead to the future, the profits are expected to keep rising, but the growth rate will decline slightly because the high point of the industrial producer price index may have passed, and there is less room for industrial enterprises to use price hikes to boost income and profit margins, China Galaxy Securities said in a research report.

AI computing power, electronic information, and high-end equipment remain the primary growth drivers, and related industries are expected to sustain their profit growth thanks to demand expansion, output growth, and technological upgrades, it added.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting