China's building materials industry, a losing proposition in 1997 and 1998, reported profits of 380 million yuan (about 45 million US dollars) in the first three quarters of this year.

According to Tan Zhongming, an official with the State Administration for Building Materials, the industry has maintained a steady growth since the beginning of this year.

Last year saw a loss of 2.65 billion yuan in the industry, but this year it had earned 3.3 billion yuan by the end of September, with profits of 380 million yuan, Tan said.

Enterprises with annual sales of more than five million yuan each had a combined industrial value-added of 29.5 billion yuan for the first nine months, up 12.8 percent over the same period last year, Tan added.

Industry observers also reported recovering growth during the period, with exports of 1.6 billion dollars worth of building materials in the period, up 3.5 percent.

State-owned large and medium-sized enterprises realized profits of 149 million yuan after suffering losses for two consecutive years, Tan pointed out.

He attributed this growth to the industry's structural readjustment and the closing of many small-capacity cement and glass works.

Tan predicted that by the end of this year, the industry will have a combined industrial added value of 88 billion yuan and see profits of 700 million yuan.