BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's major beverage manufacturers saw a total revenue of 343.14 billion yuan (about 51.76 billion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
The reading was down 8.2 percent year on year but the decline rate narrowed by 1.3 percentage points from the January-August decline, the ministry said.
During the nine-month period, the profit of beverage producers with annual revenue of over 20 million yuan shrank 1.3 percent year on year to 36.85 billion yuan, the MIIT said.
The output of these firms reached 129.44 million tonnes during the period, down 6.1 percent year on year.
These companies, however, in September achieved a growth of 6.4 percent in production from a year ago to 17.18 million tonnes. Enditem
