China’s industrial output climbed 8.9 per cent year-on-year in May, 1.6 percentage points higher than in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Among the big sector gainers were chemical products, whose output increased 11.1 per cent, and transportation equipment, which climbed 12.8 per cent. Cement output stood at 148m tons in May, a monthly record. In the first five months of this year, cement production grew 13.3 per cent year-on-year to 570m tons.

Coal output increased 9.6 per cent on May 2008 to 250m tons, while crude oil output fell 1.1 per cent to 160.3m tons. Rolled steel output was down 7.4 per cent to 573m tons.

Much of the increases can be attributed to China’s Rmb4,000bn stimulus package announced last November. Reflecting the continuous rolling-out of this campaign, China’s urban fixed asset investment surged 33 per cent from a year earlier to Rmb5,350bn in the first five months of this year, according to the NBS. The increase was 2.4 percentage points higher than that of the first four months of 2009.