BEIJING — China's plastic industry registered a profit increase in the first 10 months of the year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) shows.

Manufacturers of plastic products raked in total profits of 93.77 billion yuan (about $14.34 billion) in the January-October period, up 18.8 percent year-on-year, according to the MIIT.

The total operating revenues of these companies went down 2.7 percent from last year to around 1.5 trillion yuan during the period.

MIIT data also shows that the national output of plastic products stood at 60.76 million tonnes in the first 10 months, decreasing 6.2 percent year-on-year.

Bucking the downward trend, output rose 3.6 percent year-on-year in October to around 6.87 million tonnes.