China's industrial production in the first three months of 2006 totaled 1,782.2 billion yuan (222 billion U.S. dollars), rising 16.7 percent year-on-year, which was 0.5 percentage point higher than that in the same period of last year.

Zheng Jingping, spokesman with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)made the announcement in Beijing Thursday at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Of the total, the growth of heavy industry was 17.6 percent while that of the light industry was 14.7 percent, according to the NBS.

The production of power generation and coal rose 11.1 percent and 12 percent, respectively. The production of raw materials such as rolled steel, alumina, aluminum, and 10 kinds of nonferrous metals jumped 21.7 percent, 45.3 percent, 36.4 percent and 22.2 percent, respectively, according to the NBS.

The production of electronic and telecommunication products such as microcomputers, mobile phones and fax machines rose 40.1 percent, 57.1 percent and 21.5 percent. The production of motor vehicles went up by 36.3 percent and that of cars rose 70.5 percent.