Maintaining profit growth of more than 10 percent will be a very tough task for central State-owned enterprises, which will likely see their growth shrink from the third quarter, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has warned.

Jiang Jiemin, SASAC's chairman and former president of China National Petroleum Corp, in April required all central SOEs to guarantee at least a 10 percent profit increase for this year.

China's SOEs, which are engaged in national economic arteries including petroleum, gas, telecommunications, electronic power generation, aviation and shipping, are the pillars of the economy. An increase in their profits is considered important to stabilize the country's economy.