China Machinery Industry Foreign Trade Up 15.9% in H1 2026; Auto Exports Jump 53%

Data on the machinery industry's operating performance in the first half of 2026 were released on August 6. Value-added output of machinery industry enterprises above designated size grew 6.4% year on year in the period, 1.0 and 0.8 percentage points higher than the national industry and manufacturing averages respectively. All five national-economy industry categories covered by the machinery sector posted year-on-year growth in value-added output: general equipment manufacturing rose 7.6%, special-purpose equipment 8.2%, automobiles 7.0%, electrical machinery 6.1%, and instruments and meters 8.8%. Of 127 key machinery products under monitoring, 80 reported year-on-year output growth, a coverage rate of 63%, indicating an overall upward trend.

In the first half, machinery industry enterprises above designated size generated revenue of RMB16.1 trillion, up 6.5% year on year. All 14 sub-sectors recorded revenue growth, with electrical appliances, engineering machinery, machine tools, and robots and intelligent manufacturing growing by more than 10%. During the same period, value-added output of high-tech manufacturing above designated size rose 13.3% and that of equipment manufacturing increased 9.3%. Industries related to artificial intelligence, including integrated circuit manufacturing and intelligent in-vehicle equipment manufacturing, maintained growth above 30%. Output of aerospace vehicles and equipment, electronic and communications equipment, 3D printing equipment, lithium-ion batteries, and industrial robots continued to expand.

In foreign trade, the machinery industry completed total goods trade of US$692.76 billion in the first half, up 15.9% year on year. Imports reached US$133.44 billion, up 1.4%, while exports totaled US$559.33 billion, up 20%. The trade surplus came to US$425.89 billion, up 27.4%. Exports and the trade surplus accounted for 26.3% and 73.9% of the nation's total goods trade respectively, up 0.5 and 16.6 percentage points year on year. Exports of automobiles and electric passenger vehicles rose 53.0% and 76.0% year on year respectively.

On prices, the machinery industry's producer price index saw its decline narrow gradually amid sustained upstream price increases, turning positive in May and rising 0.7% in June, ending 38 consecutive months of year-on-year decline.

The 2026 Government Work Report calls for continued efforts to upgrade key industries, with a new batch of major technical transformation projects, RMB200 billion in ultra-long special treasury bonds to support large-scale equipment renewal, a new round of high-quality development actions for key manufacturing industry chains, strengthened industrial foundation rebuilding and major technical equipment research, and the creation of national advanced manufacturing clusters. At a State Council Information Office press conference on July 20, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would fully promote the transformation and upgrading of the equipment industry, publicize and implement the 15th Five-Year Plan for intelligent connected new energy vehicles, continue implementing new plans for stable growth in the machinery, automobile, and power equipment industries, and accelerate research on key core technologies. At a symposium of national industry and information technology department heads held the same day, participants called for accelerating research on intelligent equipment, developing a new generation of intelligent manufacturing, and promoting the adoption of new-generation intelligent devices including humanoid robots and brain-computer interfaces.