China's 169 major State-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported a 22.4 percent growth in profits in the first three quarters of this year, officials said on Wednesday.

According to statistics released on Wednesday by China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Management Commission, the enterprises, which are under the direct control of the Central Government, also reported a total investment of 648.6 billion yuan(80 billion US dollars), or a 18.9 percent growth year on year.

The newly-added industrial output by the SOEs totaled 1.4407 trillion yuan (177.8 billion US dollars), up 23.5 percent.

Most of the investment went to power, oil, military, mining, machinery and transport sectors, with mining firms increasing their investment by more than 100 percent and the investment in the machinery sector going up 50 percent.

Investment in telecommunication operating firms was down by 13.2 percent due to the uncertainty about the timing of the issuance of the 3G (third generation) mobile telecommunication standards.

Investment in real estate, construction and construction-material sectors were down by 33.1 percent, 5.9 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, due to the country's macro-economic regulation, said the commission.

The country's two leading coal mining firms produced 169 million tons of coal in the three quarters, up 27.9 percent, whilethe country's seven power generating firms produced 776.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, up 21 percent.

China's petrochemical firms completed a total investment of 161.9 billion yuan (19.9 billion US dollars) and produced 152 million tons of crude oil, up 18 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively, said the commission.

The combined steel output of the country's four steel giants, namely Baosteel, Anshan Steel, Wuhan Steel and Panzhihua Steel, was up 5.2 percent in the three quarters, and their sales revenues were up 19.6 percent despite falling steel prices on the domestic market.

Those enterprises borrowed 158.8 billion yuan in loans from thebanking sector and gained 6 billion US dollars worth of letter of credit.

Source: Xinhua