In the first quarter of 2026, China’s machinery industry achieved steady growth in a complex economic environment. Behind the growth was the strong performance of high-end manufacturing and exports, highlighting the deep driving force for the industrial structure to move towards the middle and high end of the value chain.
Data show that the added value of major industries in the machinery industry has maintained year-on-year growth, and the overall performance is characterized by “stable production, rising investment, and strong exports.”
Steady growth in production: the five major industries are booming across the board, and equipment manufacturing has made outstanding contributions
In the first quarter, the added value of the five major industries involved in the machinery industry all achieved positive growth.
Among them, the general equipment manufacturing industry increased by 7.8%, the special equipment manufacturing industry increased by 7.7%, the automobile manufacturing industry increased by 5.1%, the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry increased by 7.3%, and the instrumentation manufacturing industry increased by 7.7%.
Looking at the overall industry, the added value of industries above designated size increased by 6.1% year-on-year, while the added value of the equipment manufacturing industry increased by 8.9% year-on-year, contributing nearly 50% to the growth of industries above designated size, playing the role of “ballast stone”.
Among representative products, the cumulative output of industrial robots was 238,000 sets, a year-on-year increase of 33.2%; the cumulative output of generating sets was 84.09 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 15.1%.
Investment picks up: High-end fields increase, with railways and aviation leading the way
In terms of fixed asset investment, investment in the five major industries in the equipment industry all achieved positive growth.
Investment in general equipment manufacturing increased by 12.5% year-on-year; investment in railway, shipbuilding, aerospace and other transportation equipment manufacturing increased by 27.7% year-on-year, a significant growth rate; investment in high-tech manufacturing increased by 5.2% year-on-year, of which investment in computer and office equipment manufacturing increased by 28.3%, and investment in aviation, spacecraft and equipment manufacturing increased by 19.0%.
In contrast, investment in special equipment manufacturing dropped slightly by 0.4%, while investment in electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing increased by 0.8%, indicating that investment is tilted towards high-end and strategic areas.
Strong exports: equipment products are exported overseas, accounting for more than 60%
Exports have become an important support for the growth of the machinery industry.
In the first quarter, the export value of equipment manufacturing products denominated in RMB increased by 19.2% year-on-year, accounting for more than 60% of the country’s total export value.
The export volume of the construction machinery industry increased significantly by 36.1% year-on-year, and overseas markets have become the core driving force for the steady growth of the industry.
The export of new energy vehicles was 954,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1.2 times, further consolidating international competitiveness.
New momentum released: High-tech manufacturing profits soared, intelligence levels improved
The profit structure was significantly optimized.
In the first quarter, the profits of the equipment manufacturing industry above designated size increased by 21.0% year-on-year, driving the profit growth of all industrial enterprises above designated size by 6.8 percentage points; accounting for 33.7% of the profits of all industrial enterprises above designated size, a year-on-year increase of 1.7 percentage points.
The profits of high-tech manufacturing increased by 47.4% year-on-year, driving the profits of all industrial enterprises above designated size to increase by 7.9 percentage points. Among them, the profits of the electronics industry increased by 124.5%, becoming the main driving force.
In terms of intelligence, the equipment industry has built 197 outstanding smart factories, driving down product defect rates by an average of 48.4% and increasing production efficiency by an average of 22.3%.
From January to February, the penetration rate of new passenger cars with L2-level combined driving assistance functions reached 69%, an increase of 10 percentage points from the same period last year.
Innovation capabilities continue to increase. For example, the world’s first invasive brain-computer interface medical device was approved for sale, and domestic spot welding industrial robots were used in batches in automobile welding lines for the first time.
Structural optimization: The automobile industry is transforming, and construction machinery exports have become a new trend
Although the growth rate of the added value of the automobile manufacturing industry is relatively flat at 5.1%, the signal of industry transformation is clear.
Among new energy passenger vehicles sold domestically, the cumulative sales of B-class models increased by 8.1%, indicating a clear trend of consumption upgrading; the sales of domestic brand models with a value of more than 500,000 yuan increased by 97% year-on-year, with a market share of 69.5%.
At the same time, the rapid growth of new energy vehicle exports has offset the short-term adjustment of domestic power battery installations, which fell by 4.1% year-on-year.
The construction machinery industry has benefited from high export growth and improved corporate efficiency.
For example, Aidi Precision’s first-quarter net profit increased by 48.39% year-on-year, and the process of replacing domestically produced hydraulic parts has accelerated.
The steady growth of the machinery industry in the first quarter is not a simple expansion of scale, but an improvement in quality driven by high-end, intelligence, and greening.
As investment tilts towards high-tech fields, export competitiveness increases, and new productivity is accelerated, the machinery industry is expected to continue to occupy a higher position in the global industrial chain and inject sustained impetus into high-quality economic development.
