Defense equipment manufacturer says profits up 27.6%

BEIJING - China North Industries Group Corp (NORINCO), the country's largest defense equipment manufacturer, said Saturday that its profits rose 27.6 percent year-on-year to reach 8.65 billion yuan ($1.37 billion) in 2011.

Its revenues stood at 307.7 billion yuan, up 27.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the company's annual work meeting.

The company said it invested 4.3 billion yuan in research and development last year. Labor costs increased by 1.5 billion yuan during the period, the company said.

Zhang Guoqing, NORINCO's general manager, said that the company will make efforts to develop products geared toward military and civilian integration in sectors such as heavy vehicles, engineering machinery and petrochemical engineering.