China produced 26.97 million tons of 10 major non-ferrous metal products in the first nine months of this year, up 7.1 percent year-on-year, according to data from the National Development and Reform Commission.

The non-ferrous metal output growth in January-September was 4.1 percentage points lower than the same period of last year, the NDRC said in a report about the non-ferrous metal sector on its website.

The slower growth brought down the profits of major non-ferrous metal enterprises by 27.7 percent year-on-year to 81.47 billion yuan, despite a year-on-year increase of 11 percent in business revenues, according to the NDRC.

As a result, non-ferrous metal companies scaled back their investment in the sector, completing 405.43 billion yuan in fixed-asset investment, which was up 20.4 percent from a year ago.

The investment growth in the non-ferrous metal sector in the first three quarters was 10 percentage points lower than the same period of last year.