Rising industrial profits bode well for market

The National Bureau of Statistics recently released economic data of domestic industrial enterprises in the first five months of 2021. According to it, industrial enterprises above the designated size saw their profits grow by 83.4 percent year-on-year and by 48.0 percent compared with 2019. Their profits in May alone grew by 36.4 percent year-on-year and by 44.6 percent compared with May 2019.

The data is evidence of the domestic industrial enterprises' vitality. Enterprises above the designated size are those that generate at least 20 million yuan ($3.09 million) in revenue annually. Such enterprises play an essential role in the market. They purchase products and services from small- and medium-sized enterprises, greatly boosting the vitality of the whole industrial sector.

An in-depth analysis of the NBS data shows three obvious trends with regard to domestic enterprises above the designated size. First, the profit growth is quite high, as 39 of the 41 sub-sectors have shown growth, compared with the first five months of last year. In fact, eight sub-sectors saw their profits more than double in May.

Second, there is increased profitability. In May alone, the enterprises saw their input cost for earning every 100 yuan in revenue going down by 0.75 yuan, pushing profits up by 0.95 percent. As a result, even for loss-making enterprises, the losses decreased by 29.6 percent.

Third, the business environment is constantly improving. By the end of May, the average payback period for debts dipped by seven days year-on-year, while the asset-liability ratio dropped by 0.6 percentage points to 56.3 percent. That means there is a benign fund flow among enterprises in the industrial sector.

Of course, more needs to be done. For example, affected by the rise in prices of commodities, the new profits are mainly distributed in the mining and raw material industries in the upper stream, with pressure piling up on downstream enterprises.

A common metaphor compares the market to a pond and enterprises to fish living in it. The vitality of the big fish shows the whole domestic industrial sector is prospering and the water quality in the pond is good.