Profits in China's 32 major state-owned companies in the coal industry reached 21.3 billion yuan (2.63 billion US dollars) from January to July, up 97.7 percent year on year.
        Statistics released Thursday by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission showed that the profit growth rate dropped 0.6 percentage points from the first six months last year.
        In the January-July period, the industrial output value of the 32 enterprises totaled 154.32 billion yuan, up 45.2 percent over the same period last year, or 0.9 percentage points lower than the growth of the first half year.
        During the same period, income from the core businesses of these enterprises reached 163.95 billion yuan, up 45.8 percent year on year and 2.6 percentage points lower from the first six months of 2005.