China says debt risks in major state firms controllable

BEIJING -- Risks in bonds issued by China's centrally-administered state firms are "controllable," the country's state assets supervisor said on Friday after an number of recent debt defaults spooked investors.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) made the conclusion after assessing the risk of defaults from the country's 106 such enterprises.

The assessment showed enterprises were well capitalized and that their performance was improving.

Last month, China Railway Materials Company Ltd., sought to suspend trading in 16.8 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) of bonds, as the company struggled to make the payments.

Companies are under debt pressure in industries such as steel, oil and coal. Bonds issued by them totaled 4.05 trillion yuan as of the end of March, according to SASAC data.