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BEIJING(Scrap Monster): The growth rate for production of 10 major nonferrous metals in China in the first nine months of this year has slowed 4.1 percentage points from last year's growth rate, said China's National Development and Reform Committee (NRDC).

Total output of the 10 major nonferrous metals increased 7.1% to 27.26 million tons year-on-year in the first nine months of this year, the NDRC recently reported.

The report said copper production was up 7.4% in the first nine months of the year, down 8.8 percentage points from the growth rate last year.

Lead production increased 11.1 percent during the first three quarters of this year, a growth decrease of 4 percentage points compared to the same period of last year.

Zinc production declined 6.2% in the first nine months of the year, compared with the 3.5% growth reported during the same period in 2011, according to NDRC.

"The major non-ferrous metals prices have recovered or are basically stable," the agency said.

However, profits from China's nonferrous metal sector plunged 21% year-on-year to 111.5 billion yuan (US$18.5 billion) in the first eight months of this year, the NDRC advised. The nonferrous mining industry recorded profits of 444 million yuan (US$71.14 million), down 4.8%, while the non-ferrous metal smelting and processing industry reported a profit of 67.1 billion yuan (US$10.76 billion), a decrease of 29%.

In spite of the decline in the growth rate of nonferrous metals production in China, Zhu Hongren, chief engineer with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said last week that the nonferrous sector has shown signs of stabilizing.

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed production in the building products, chemicals, nonferrous metals and auto industries have all ended their previous declines.