RPT-UPDATE 2-China's industrial profit growth slows for the fifth month as orders fall

(Repeats Saturday's story, no text changes)

* September: industrial profit up 4.1% yoy against 9.2% in August

* Lower profits due to slower sales and production

* Third quarter GDP has seen the slowest growth since the global financial crisis

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Reuters) – Earnings growth in China's industrial enterprises slowed for the fifth consecutive month in September, as raw material and manufactured goods sales declined further, suggesting a slowdown in domestic demand in the United States. the second largest economy.

The slowdown was in line with data released last week that September's manufacturing output grew at its weakest pace since February 2016.

The slowdown in corporate profits will put pressure on jobs, slowing consumer spending and affecting China's overall growth.

Industrial profits rose 4.1 percent in September from the previous year to 545.5 billion yuan (78.57 billion US dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday. ). It was less than half the pace of August and the slowest since March.

September's revenue was mainly influenced by a more pronounced slowdown in production and sales, a drop in price growth, as well as a high statistical base a year earlier, said He Ping of the Bureau of Statistics in a statement. accompanying the data.

The escalation of the trade war with the United States has also increased pressure on global production and threatens to curb business investment and earnings growth over the next few months.

Data from last week showed that the Chinese economy in the third quarter had experienced the weakest growth since the global financial crisis, the slowdown in manufacturing output.

The manufacturing sector was also constrained by the reduction of credit sources in the context of the multi-year repression of corporate debt and risky lending practices in Beijing.

While the authorities are taking steps to ease the pressure on companies facing liquidity problems, many companies are still struggling to obtain funds. Interest rates on loans have also increased due to reduced credit supply.

The cooling of the real estate market – the engine of economic growth – has also undermined demand for goods and services related to construction, limiting industrial profits.

Investments in softer infrastructure, although Beijing has approved more projects in the second half of this year, have also put pressure on the results of industrial enterprises.

In the first nine months of the year, industrial profits increased 14.7%, driven by profits from companies producing steel, building materials, petroleum and petrochemicals.

But growth slowed down from 16.2% in January-August.

Earlier this month, Jiangsu Shagang Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Shagang Group, China's largest private steel mill, announced a 91.5 percent increase in net profit for the third quarter.

The average profit margin for steel remains very high, according to an analyst at Argonaut Securities in Hong Kong.

Commitments by industrial enterprises increased 6.1 percent from the previous year at the end of September to reach 63.1 trillion yuan, compared to an increase of 6.6 percent at the end of August.

The statistics office data covers large companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan from their main activities.