China's industrial value-added output growth slowed to 13.1 percent year on year in Oct. from 13.3 percent in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.

The growth rate for the first 10 months was 16.1 percent year on year, down 0.2 percentage points from the January-September period, said NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun.

The industrial value-added output of state-owned and state-holding companies grew 10.6 percent in Oct. and that of collectively-owned and joint-stock enterprises expanded 7.9 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively. Companies with overseas investment posted a rise of 11.2 percent.

For heavy industries, industrial value-added output in the first 10 months was up 13.2 percent year on year, and that for light industries climbed 12.9 percent, said Sheng.

Industrial value-added output measures the final results of industrial production, which is the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate input such as raw materials and labor.

For production volumes, the volumes of cast iron and crude steel in Oct. dropped 7 percent and 3.8 percent respectively from the previous month, while the other five major products, including crude oil, electricity, rolled steel, cement and automobiles, saw increases both in Oct. and the first 10 months.

The sales rate of industrial products dropped to 97.8 percent in Oct., down 0.3 percentage points from the same month last year. The delivery value of industrial exports rose 21.6 percent year-on-year to 812.4 billion yuan (118 billion U.S. dollars) in Oct.

Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, expected the country's industrial value-added output to expand at least 13.5 percent year on year in 2010 as the industrial sector has returned to stable growth after overcoming the global financial crisis.

China's industrial value-added output expanded 11 percent in 2009.