From this year, the municipal industrial economy has positively adapted to the new normal. We have endeavored to make structural adjustments and transform the ways of advancing the economy. We have intensified the industry support and promoted both quality and efficiency. Hence, the municipal industry growth increased rapidly with steadiness and openness and attained major profits. All the efforts got off to a good start.
　　In the first quarter, the total industrial profits of municipal enterprises with an annual revenue of 20 million Yuan (around   US $ 3.33 million ) or more from their main business operations reached 134.437 billion Yuan (around US $ 21.69 billion), an increase of 11.0% compared with the same period of last year. The main business income achieved 75.411 billion Yuan (around US $ 12.17 billion), registering a 10.0% growth compared with the same period of last year. The taxation of profits obtained 6.928 billion Yuan (around US $ 1.12 billion), which rose by 39.4% compared with the same period of 2014. There are 174 money-losing enterprises, 26 less than the same period of last year. The losses of the unprofitable enterprises were 521 million Yuan (around US $ 74.60 million), a decrease of 24.3% compared with the same period of last year. The main features of industrial development are as follows:  
　　Firstly, the industry developed at high speed thanks to openness and smoothness; the growth rate ranked top in Hubei Province.
　　In the first quarter, the total industrial added value of Yichang municipal enterprises with an annual revenue of 20 million Yuan (around US $ 3.33 million) or more rose by 11.3% compared with the first quarter of last year, our city ranked second in Hubei in terms of the economic growth speed. Looking from the transverse perspectives, Yichang’s economic level was 2.9% higher than the provincial average level, 2.8% higher than Xiangyang city. From the vertical views, the growth speed was 1.2% lower than that in last January and February, 0.1% higher than the end of last year. It registered a 0.4% growth compared with the same period of last year. Some county-level cities which are under the jurisdiction of Yichang city like Zigui, Dangyang and Yuan’an, their industry output values’ increase were higher than the municipal average level. Some county-level districts of Yichang like Xingshan, Dangyang and Yidu whose added value growth was also higher than the overall city.
　　Secondly, the linkage between production and sales was good; many key products increased production.
　　Influenced by the national up-regulation of tax refund of some export products and the cancellation of the restriction of exports products phase, the output of phosphatic fertilizer and fined phosphrous chemical products was largely increased, and the yield of the food biological medicine products was kept a rapid growth. In the first quarter, the overall products sales rate of Yichang was 96.85%, an increase of 0.12 % compared with the same period of last year. Among the 50 key industrial products of the city, 32 products registered some growth compared with the same period of last year, among which 9 products’ growth rate was over 15%. The chemical raw materials rose by 92.5%, the yellow phosphate 26.4%, the diammonium phosphate 26.2% and the fodder 23.9%.
　　Thirdly, the added-value tax and freight volume indexes increased fast; the trend of industrial development was with stable recovery.
　　From January to February, the city’s overall industrial added value obtained 604 million Yuan (around US $ 97.44 million), an increase of 11.0% compared with last January and February. The Yichang’s volume for port of exports was 325 thousand tons, an increase of 19.1% compared with the same period of last year. The highway freight volume was 122.5 million tons, an increase of 22.6% compared with the same period of last year. The water freight volume was 6.965 million tons, an increase of 12.1% compared with the same period of last year. In the first quarter, the industrial electricity consumption of the whole city was 3.874 billion KWH, a decrease of 6.25% compared with the same period of last year. Deducting the power consumption of the nine largest enterprises such as Changjiang Aluminum, Sanxin Silicon, Xiangxi Chemical Engineering, Fulong Steel, Armoured Rongping Electrolytic Mangares and Hubei Petrol, the total electricity consumption reduced by 2,600 million KWH due to their overhauls and underproductions. Therefore, the total power consumption slightly increased.  The total power consumption of 972 enterprises with annual revenue of 20 million Yuan (around US $ 3.23 million) or more accelerated this year compared with the same period of last year which accounted for 67.59% of the overall enterprises.
　　Fourthly, the economic efficiency was improved step by step; the profit ability was constantly enhanced.
　　From January to February, the enterprises with an annual revenue of 20 million Yuan (around US $ 3.33 million) or more achieved 4,651 million Yuan (around US $ 750.35 million) which increased 67.6% compared with last January and February. The large profits growth mainly benefited from VAT refunds and from the large-scaled hydroeclectric enterprises like Changjiang Power and Qingjiang Power; the investment benefits from Qingjiang Power; the national up-regulation of tax refund of some export products. All the city’s 8 key enterprises gained profits compared with the same period of last year. Respectively, the electric power industry obtained the interests of 1,861 million Yuan (around US $ 300.24 million), with 2.49 times of year-on-year growth. Effected by the increase of price, the rise of chemical industry products gained 1.12 billion Yuan (around US $ 0.18 billion) in benefits, a growth of 14.7% compared with last year. Due to profound compact of the high drive ratio of the advanced production equipment, the decrease of loses of  Sanxia Quantong Company, 490 million Yuan (around US $ 79.05 million) profits have been made, with a growth of 47.4% compared with the same period of last year. Owning to the expanded influence of batch of products such as new materials for polysilicon, there maintained 363 million Yuan (around US $ 58.56 million), a growth of 23.2% compared with the same period of last year. Metallurgical industry was influenced by the stopping overhaul of Changing Aluminum, making up the deficits and get surpluses, maintained 27 million Yuan (around US $ 4.36 million) profits. Building materials industry achieved a profit of 385 million Yuan (around US $ 62.11 million), an increase of 37.1%. Textile industry profits were 60 million Yuan (around US $ 9.68 million ), an increase of 2.14 times compared with the same period of last year.
　　The effect of deepening reform was apparent; billions of industry accelerated its pace of development.
　　In recent years, Yichang Municipal Party Committee & Municipal Government has issued a series of policy measures, which includes promoting the development of key industries, facilitating industrial transformation and upgrading, accelerating the development of private economy and urban industries as well as many other policy measures supportive to the sound and steady development of industrial economies. Besides, it has intensified policy support such as increasing industrial development funds, industrial production scheduling funds, SME development funds, short-term scheduling funds and service system special subsidies. It also implemented the large sections’ reform which focused on strengthening industrial development and service enterprises on Yichang Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology. At present, these systematic deepening reform measures have achieved preliminary success. In the first quarter of 2015, eight key industries, among which the metallurgical industry’s output value declined year on year because of the impact of several enterprises’ discontinued operations. While the other seven key industries’ output value maintained steady growth. Among them four billion industries’ gross output of industry totaled RMB 110,205 billion Yuan ($ 17.7760665 billion), which increased by 12.6% compared with the previous year. And they accounted for 81.98% in the city’s gross output of industry and increased by 1.75 percentage points over the same period of last year. The output value of fine chemical industry reached RMB 43.428 billion Yuan ($7.0049364 billion) with 9.9% year-on-year growth. The output value of food & biomedical industry amounted to RMB 46.064 billion Yuan ($7.4301232 billion) with 17.5% year-on-year growth. Both its total amount and growth rate ranked the first in all industries. The output value of advanced equipment manufacturing industry reached RMB 19.86 billion Yuan ($3.203418 billion) with 9.2% year-on-year increase. The output value of new materials industry totaled RMB 16.199 billion Yuan ($2.6128987 billion) with 8.3% increase.
　　Market entity expanded rapidly. The growth rate of key enterprises kept steady recovery.
　　In the first quarter, the city’s industrial enterprises above designated size reached 1438, which increased 33 over the end of last year and 58 over the same period of last year. When the total amount of market entity was being expanded, the development rate of key enterprises picked up obviously. The gross output of industry of the city’s 150 key enterprises reached RMB 83.285 billion Yuan ($13.4338705 billion), accounting for 61.95% of the city\'s gross output of industry with 11.65% year-on-year increase. The growth rate is 0.65 percentage points higher than the city’s level, lifting a total of 2.43 percentage points from the previous month. The industrial added value of 150 key enterprises increased by 12.1% compared with the previous year, which was 0.8 percentage points higher than the city’s level.
　　The rate of project construction sped up; the stamina of industry development was enhanced.
　　In 2015, the city’s industrial investment projects above designated size reached 420. The total investment of these projects amounted to RMB 89.04 billion Yuan ($14.362152 billion) and the planned investment of these projects in 2015 will reach RMB 28.19 billion Yuan ($4.547047 billion). In the first quarter of 2015, RMB 6.85 billion Yuan ($1.104905 billion) has been invested, which accounted for 24.3% of the annual investment plan. 361 projects have started to be constructed, among which 28 projects have been basically completed. 184 key projects whose investments were over RMB 100 million Yuan ($16.13 million) have been brought into the city’s tracking projects. The total investment of these projects amounted to RMB 80.11 billion Yuan ($12.921743 billion) and the planned investment of these projects in 2015 will reach RMB 23.45 billion Yuan ($3.782485 billion). In the first quarter, 154 projects have started to be constructed and the investment of these projects reached RMB 5.57 billion Yuan ($898.441 million). Firstly, four key industries have become an investment hot spot. The industrial investment projects above designated size of four key industries that is fine chemical industry, food & biomedical industry, advanced equipment manufacturing industry and electronic information industry reached 343, which accounted for 81.7% of the city’s total amount. The total investment reached RMB 74.16 billion Yuan ($11.962008 billion), which accounted for 83.3% of the city’s total amount. The investment of RMB 5.94 billion Yuan ($958.112 million) has been completed, which accounted for 86.7% in the city’s total amount. Secondly, the investment of large projects has been increased. The investments of 184 projects were over RMB 100 million Yuan ($16.13 million), which accounted for 43.81% of the city’s total number of projects. Among them 55 projects’ investments were over RMB 500 million Yuan ($80.65 million) and 129 projects’ investment was from RMB 100 million Yuan ($16.13 million) to RMB 500 million Yuan ($80.65 million). The total investment of billion projects reached RMB 80.11 billion Yuan ($12.921743 billion), which accounted for 89.97% of the city’s total investment. RMB 5.57 billion Yuan ($898.441 million) has been invested, which accounted for 81.31% of the city’s completed investment. Thirdly, the number of new projects has increased significantly over the previous year. In the first quarter of 2015, 68 projects were newly constructed with an increase of 29 over the same period of last year. Fourthly, the rate of projects’ construction has been accelerated. In the first quarter, 28 projects have been basically completed. Numbers of large projects such as Yichang Nanbo Photo Electric Glass Co., Ltd., the first-stage production base for pharmaceutical exports of Yichang Humanwell Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., 600,000 tons of nitro compound fertilizer of Hubei Sanning Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. have been completed or substantially completed and put into production. (Correspondent, Jing Wei)