Profits at China's state-owned enterprises fell 9.1 percent year on year in the first quarter, with steel and building materials industries posting drastic drops, amid an economic slowdown.

The combined profits by SOEs totaled 482.9 billion yuan (US$76.6 billion) in the first three months of this year, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Sales rose 12.9 percent to 9.46 trillion yuan. The ministry's survey didn't include SOEs in the financial sector.

China's economy grew 8.1 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace since the second quarter of 2009.

The ministry said its SOE survey revealed that profits in steel, building materials, chemicals and nonferrous metals industries dropped the most. The profits at auto, power and telecommunications industries increased.

Zhang Changfu, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, yesterday said the domestic steel industry posted a loss of around 1 billion yuan in the first quarter, against a profit of 25.8 billion yuan a year earlier. The steel sector was hurt by slowing demand and high costs of raw materials.

Separately, Moody's said centrally-administered Chinese SOEs enjoy higher government support during crises.