Profits made by China's industrial companies grew 75.7 per cent during the first four months of this year compared with the same period of 2002, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

The profit growth, which slowed from the 94.3 per cent rate witnessed during the first three months, still much faster than the 20.6 per cent rise recorded for the whole of 2002.

During the January-April period, industrial companies made total profits of 225.6 billion yuan (US$27.2 billion), the bureau said in a statement.

Profits made by State-owned industrial firms and firms in which the State holds a majority of the stake was 121.7 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion) during the period, a year-on-year increase of 120 per cent.

"Profits made by a majority of the industrial sectors increased obviously," the bureau said.

Earnings of crude oil and natural gas producers rose 28.9 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion) during the four months compared with a year ago, due to higher oil prices.

Profits of the transport sector, including cars, rose 15 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion), while earnings of ferrous metal smelters increased 10.5 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion), it said.

Profits of chemical raw material companies rose 5.4 billion yuan (US$650 million), while earnings of oil processing firms rose 4.3 billion yuan (US$518 million), it said.

Niu Li, a senior economist with the State Information Centre, said the strong profit growth was reasonable, because the outbreak of SARS did not have much negative impact on industrial companies' profit during the four months.

But the SARS impact should not be neglected in the coming months, he said.