Industrial profits maintained strong growth momentum in November, capping a remarkable turnaround for the year.

Major industrial companies, those with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan ($3.18 million), saw profits surge 22.8 percent year-on-year to reach 638.5 billion yuan last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

The growth outstripped the 20.5 percent recorded in October and the 7.8 percent in September.

The closing months of the year saw a strong rebound.

In the first 11 months of the year, profits climbed 3 percent from a year earlier to 4.66 trillion yuan. They only registered a 0.5 percent increase in the January-October period and declined 1.8 percent in the January-September period, the bureau said.

Output from January to November grew 10 percent, and this is the target set for next year by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The industrial sector may contribute more than 40 percent to economic growth, said Miao Wei, minister for industry and information technology.

In 2011, the total net income of the industrial sector was 5.45 trillion yuan.

The focus will also be on quality and efficiency for next year, the minister said.

"The foundation of a recovery in industrial production has not yet been consolidated, and enterprises still encounter difficulties," he said.