PROFITS of China's industrial enterprises soared 91.5 percent from a year earlier in the first four months of this year, slower than the 102.6 percent increase in the first quarter.

Manufacturers in the country's 24 provincial regions earned a combined 978.5 billion yuan (US$143 billion) in the period, accounting for 82 percent of the total industrial profit, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday on its Website.

Out of the 39 industries, 37 reported a profit growth in the period, but the tobacco sector declined 15 percent while the petroleum-processing, coke and nuclear-fuel-processing sectors fell 6.8 percent, the bureau said.

The profit of the ferrous metal smelting and processing industry jumped 140 times from a year earlier, and the electricity industry grew 7.8 times.

Manufacturers saw their revenues rise 40 percent from a year earlier to 16.12 trillion yuan in January to April, 0.4 percentage point lower than that of the first quarter, according to the bureau.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Thursday released the target of eliminating outdated production capacity for 18 industries, including iron, steel, cement and electrolytic aluminum, this year. The aim includes cutting iron output capacity by 30 million tons and steel by 8.3 million tons.