TOKYO -- Chinese goods producers may be feeling squeezed by spiking input costs, but a wave of profit updates from the country's resource producers highlight the windfall coming their way.

Beijing on Thursday reported a 10.7% year-on-year rise in the country's producer price index, the biggest jump since China began compiling such data 25 years ago. A key driver was higher prices for coal, the fuel used in most of the country's power plants.

China Coal Energy, a top producer, told shareholders this week that it expects its net profits for the first nine months of the year to come in between 11.26 billion yuan and 12.44 billion yuan ($1.75 billion to $1.93 billion).

At the top end, this would be almost triple what state-owned China Coal earned in the same period in 2020. Its board attributed the profit surge to "the substantial increase in sale prices of main products."

Citigroup this week raised its annual profit forecast for China Shenhua Energy, China Coal's top rival, by 26%, with analyst Jack Shang citing higher coal prices and projected sales volumes.

China produced 3.9 billion tons of coal last year, a majority of global production, according to statistics compiled by BP. The coal price surge is set to benefit the country's smaller producers as well.

Shenzhen-listed Shanxi Coking Coal Energy Group said on Friday that its third-quarter net profit is expected to be between 1.11 billion yuan and 1.34 billion yuan, which again could triple last year's level at the top end. Jizhong Energy Group, based in the northern province of Hubei, said its quarterly net profit looks set to expand at a similar pace, reaching as much as 720 million yuan.

Henan Shenhuo Coal and Power, which produces aluminum too, is also looking at a near-tripling of its quarterly profit to 830 million yuan, with a new factory for the metal giving an additional boost.

As with Shenhuo, Chinese suppliers of other natural resources look set to follow the lead of the country's coalminers due to higher prices for their own commodities.

"Despite the strong performance, commodities (and selective commodity-related assets) continue to be a high conviction 'overweight' in our asset allocation into Q4 as they remain supported by growing scarcity across physical markets," said Christian Mueller-Glissmann and Cecilia Mariotti of Goldman Sachs in a report last week, noting particular enthusiasm for aluminum and energy resources.

Shandong Hongchuang Aluminum Holdings this week said it expects to post a quarterly profit of as much as 10 million yuan, rebounding from a loss of 21.78 million yuan a year earlier.

Jiangxi Copper, the country's largest producer of the metal, said it would record a nine-month profit of up to 4.73 billion yuan. With higher prices for copper and sulfuric acid, this would triple the company's earnings from the same period of 2020.

China's top lithium producers are seeing gains with domestic prices for lithium carbonate, a key ingredient in most electric vehicle batteries, hovering near an all-time high, as well as from their investments in overseas peers.

Ganfeng Lithium said on Friday that it sees quarterly net profits topping 1 billion yuan, more than six times 2020's level. Part of the gain comes from a rise in the value of Ganfeng's stake in Australia's Pilbara Minerals.

Rival Tianqi Lithium, meanwhile, expects to turn to profit of between 340 million yuan and 510 million yuan, rebounding from a net loss of 406.71 million yuan a year ago when it was struggling to avoid default on bank loans. Tianqi is to record a significant gain on its investment in SQM, Chile's largest lithium miner.

Steelmakers also look poised to do well as lower iron ore costs offset the blow felt from coal.

Angang Steel said it expects to record a quarterly profit of 2.31 billion yuan, a 181% rise from a year before. CITIC Pacific Special Steel Group said it foresees recording a more modest 18% profit gain.

"While it is difficult to see the price of coking coal falling, the price of iron ore has been declining against the backdrop of more efforts [that] will likely be made to cut crude steel production" in the remainder of the year, said analyst Shinichiro Ozaki of Daiwa Capital Markets.

While China's major oil producers have not released new profit forecasts even as crude prices climb, Sinopec Engineering, an arm of China Petroleum & Chemical, said its contract backlog stood at 114.36 billion yuan as of Sept. 30, an 8.2% rise from the end of 2020.

Intermediate goods producers, however, are signaling a profit squeeze due to an inability to offset higher materials costs with price hikes.

Puyang Refactories Group, a leading supplier to steel mills, expects its quarterly net profit to halve from a year earlier. Construction materials maker Guangzhou Jointas Chemical, carbon black producer Shandong Link Science & Technology and rubber additive manufacturer Shandong Yangu Huatai sent shareholders similar warnings.

By the same token, Shanghai Electric Power said on Thursday that it expects to record a quarterly net loss of up to 346 million yuan, a sharp reversal from earnings of 756 million yuan during the first six months of the year.