Sep. 16, 2008 (China Knowledge) - China's industrial value-added output in August grew 12.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate is 1.9 percentage points lower from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on its official website.

Several industries have greatly contributed to the output gains. For instance, output of textile sectors posted a year-on-year increase of 8.9%, that of chemicals and chemical products was up 8.9%, non-ferrous mineral products output rose 13.9%, and ferrous metals and processing output surged 8.1%.

In terms of major products, crude coal and oil as well as electricity generation totaled 220 million tons, 16.03 million tons and 316.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) respectively during the period, with a year-on-year growth of 12.1%, 1.6% and 5.1%.

Meanwhile, output of crude steel amounted to 42.57 million tons, representing increment of 1.3%, while that of raw iron and steel products dropped 1.5% and 0.2% to 40.05 million tons and 47.8 million tons respectively.
 
In addition, output of cement was 120 million tons, a year-on-year rise of 1.5%, while that of auto fell 3.3% to 626,000 units with sedans down 6.0% to 345,000 units.

In August, China's sale-to-production ratio was 97.75%, down 0.81 percentage points from a year ago. Export shipments amounted to RMB 724.7 billion, up 116.3% over the same period of last year.

During the first eight months this year, China's industrial value-added output was up 15.7% from a year ago.