Industrial profits up most in 3 years

according to data released by the bureau on Thursday, a sharp slowdown from growth of 14.5 percent in November.

The bureau said the slower profit growth in December was due to volatility in oil prices and adjustments by some firms to their product structure.

But the earnings recovery remained uneven across the industrial sector, with coal miners and processors such as steel mills and oil refiners continuing to see sharper gains than other firms.

Profits in the coal mining sector surged 223.6 percent in 2016, while those for iron and steel producers rose 232.3 percent.

Baosteel Group said last week it expected its net profit to rise 770 percent in 2016 from a year earlier. The company is taking over rival Wuhan Steel to create the world’s second-

Profits of China’s major industrial firms

largest steelmaker. China’s stock market investors have cashed in on the industrial revival. An index tracking the industrial sector has risen about 22 percent since June and reached a 10-and-a-halfmonth high in November. Li: Nation is an ‘anchor of stability’

China offers “an anchor of stability and growth” in an uncertain world with its support for reform, openness and free trade, Premier Li Keqiang wrote in an article for Bloomberg Businessweek published Thursday.

The nation is opening new sectors of its economy to investment and improving access to many others while ensuring that all businesses registered in China are treated equally, he wrote.

It is the latest call from a Chinese leader for globalization at a time when the world is faced with a growing trend of protectionism.

“The world is a community of shared destiny,” Li wrote. “It’s far preferable for countries to trade goods and services and bond through investment partnerships than to trade barbs and build barriers.

“Should differences arise, it behooves us all to discuss them with respect and a keen sense of equality.”

Li also said China is continuing with structural reforms. Last year, China shed more than 65 million metric tons of inefficient steel capacity and 290 million tons of coal mining capacity.