BEIJING — China's papermaking industry saw lower revenue but higher profits in the first four months of the year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The sector saw 353.98 billion yuan ($49.88 billion) in revenue from January to April, down by 13.5 percent from the same period in the previous year.

Meanwhile, profits of China's papermaking industry rose by 5.5 percent year-on-year to 17.37 billion yuan.

MIIT data also showed that paper output stood at 35.23 million metric tons in the January-April period, decreasing by 8.1 percent year-on-year.

In April alone, paper output climbed by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 10.47 million tons.