(Yicai Global) Oct. 25 -- China Communications Construction, a state-owned construction engineering company, is on track to reach its annual contract target.

From January to September, CCCC signed contracts of CNY1.03 trillion (USD141 billion), rising by 3 percent, the Beijing-based company said in a statement yesterday. The sum is 73 percent of its annual target.

Infrastructure construction business amounted to CNY903.34 billion (USD123.7 billion), accounting for 87 percent of the total. New overseas contracts tallied CNY147.9 billion (USD20.2 billion), up 17 percent from a year ago.

But profitability was not as promising as in the first half of this year, CCCC gained a gross profit of CNY37.4 billion (USD5.1 billion), down 2 percent from the same period of last year. Its gross profit margin was 10.3 percent, reduced by about 0.9 percentage points.

The gross profit margin decline was mainly caused by an increasing share of low-profit projects such as infrastructure construction and dredging business, as well as the rising ship fuel prices, said Zhu Hongbiao, chief financial director.

Zhu said in September that in the future, CCCC will further improve the company’s net profit margin with measures such as upgrading the management system and controlling costs.

CCCC's stock price [SHA: 601800] closed up 0.43 percent to CNY 7.08 (0.97 USD) today.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi