China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) posted steady profit growth in the first half of the year, official data showed Tuesday.

Total profits of about 1.41 trillion yuan (208.9 billion U.S. dollars) were in the Jan.-June period, up 24.3 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Centrally-administered SOEs made about 935.2 billion yuan in profit, up 18.5 percent year on year, while locally-administered SOEs profited over 472 billion yuan, up 37.5 percent compared with H1 2016.

Chinese SOEs raked in about 24.6 trillion yuan in revenue in H1, up 16.6 percent year on year.

Coal, petroleum and petrochemical and transport sectors posted strong year-on-year growth while sectors such as electricity suffered profit falls.