BEIJING — China’s marine economy saw steady progress with the gross ocean product rising 6.8 percent year-on-year to near 6 trillion yuan ($864.6 billion) in the first three quarters, data showed on Dec 3.

Major marine enterprises monitored by the government posted strong profit growth, with their combined profits surging 89 percent year-on-year in the January-September period, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

In breakdown, emerging marine industries maintained sustained and rapid growth, with business income of the marine medicine and bio-product industry as well as marine renewable energy sector growing 9.2 percent and 6.5 percent respectively.

The country’s installed capacity for offshore wind turbines surged 51 percent from a year earlier to 3.05 million kilowatts in the first three quarters.

With high domestic demand for natural gas, the production of offshore natural gas grew 9 percent year-on-year, to 11.3 billion cubic meters. However, offshore crude oil output fell 4.5 percent to 35.4 million tons.