BEIJING — China's major beverage manufacturers saw a total revenue of 343.14 billion yuan (about $51.76 billion) in the first nine months, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The reading was down 8.2 percent year-on-year but the decline rate narrowed by 1.3 percentage points from the January-August decline, the ministry said.

During the nine-month period, the profit of beverage producers with annual revenue of over 20 million yuan shrank 1.3 percent year-on-year to 36.85 billion yuan, the MIIT said.

The output of these firms reached 129.44 million tonnes during the period, down 6.1 percent year-on-year.

These companies, however, in September achieved a growth of 6.4 percent in production from a year ago to 17.18 million tons.