BEIJING — China's major beverage manufacturers saw a total revenue of 297.39 billion yuan (about $44.38 billion) in the first eight months, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The reading was down 9.5 percent compared with the same period last year, the ministry said.

During the January-August period, the profit of beverage producers with annual revenue over 20 million yuan shrank 4.3 percent to 31.19 billion yuan, the MIIT said.

The output of these firms reached 112.38 million metric tons in the first eight months, down 8.1 percent year-on-year. These companies, however, in August achieved a growth of 1.6 percent in production from a year ago to 17.66 million tons.