BEIJING - Prices at the factory gate were mixed in late March, compared with mid-way through the same month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday.

From March 21 to 30, prices of 20 products, among the 50 monitored by the NBS, went up while those of 25 products dropped, and five remained flat with mid-March.

Overall prices of non-ferrous and ferrous metals, chemical products, oil and gas as well as agricultural materials fell, except for several products such as zinc ingots, seamless steel pipes and caustic soda.

Otherwise, prices of coal products, agricultural products and non-metallic building materials either remained flat or rose in this period.

China's producer price index (PPI), which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, hit its highest level since 2008 in February, largely as a result of government measures to trim excessive industrial capacity.

The official PPI in March is due to be released by the NBS on April 12.