Looking at the A-share market, the machinery and equipment industry, with its huge scale of listed companies, supports the largest manufacturing sector.
Behind this is the manufacturing foundation of a great country built by numerous above-scale enterprises and tens of millions of practitioners.
In an era of intertwined cyclical ups and downs and technological upgrades, the machinery and equipment industry has a unique development logic.
As of the close of trading on March 18, there were a total of 5,490 A-share listed companies.
Among the 31 Shenwan first-level industries, machinery and equipment ranks first in number with 596 listed companies, accounting for more than 10.8% of the total market.
This pattern is jointly shaped by industrial structure, market entities and institutional environment.
First, the track is extremely wide and has many subdivisions.
The industry covers dozens of sub-fields such as general equipment, special equipment, construction machinery, instrumentation, industrial robots, machine tools, bearings, pump valves, photovoltaic equipment, etc. A single subdivision can accommodate dozens to hundreds of companies, showing the typical characteristics of “big industry, small business”.
Second, there are a large number of private entities and strong willingness to go public.
Private enterprises account for about 78% of the industry. A large number of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises rely on specialization, export orders and standardized management to adapt to the listing thresholds of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, GEM and Beijing Stock Exchange.
Thirdly, the expansion of the registration system is beneficial to manufacturing entities.
Mechanical equipment focuses on technology, production capacity, and stable cash flow, which is in line with the capital market’s support for hard technology and manufacturing. Since 2019, an average of more than 40 new listed companies have been added every year.
Fourth, the effect of industrial clusters is significant.
Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shandong, and Anhui have formed five major manufacturing clusters, with dense enterprises and complete supporting facilities, and have cultivated market entities in batches that are qualified for listing.
From the perspective of the entire industry ecology, official statistics can better reveal the true scale.
According to relevant data, there are 137,000 enterprises above designated size in the national machinery industry (annual revenue ≥ 20 million yuan); there are about 180,000 full-scale enterprises (including small and micro enterprises and individuals below regulation).
Among them, there are 596 A-share listed companies, accounting for only 0.43% of the enterprises above the designated size, and unlisted companies accounted for 99.57%.
This means that listed companies are only a very small part of the top of the industry pyramid. A large number of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies exist in the form of supporting, OEM, and specialization, forming the bottom foundation of China’s manufacturing.
As of the close of trading on March 18, 2026, the total market value of the machinery and equipment industry was approximately 11.5 trillion yuan, showing a typical dumbbell-shaped structure.
The market value differentiation is obvious, reflecting the different development status of enterprises in the industry.
In terms of human resources structure, according to 2024-2025 data from the National Bureau of Statistics and China Machinery Industry Federation, the average age of employees in regulated enterprises is 39.2 years old, 25-35 years old in front-line operating positions, and 40-50 years old in technical/management positions.
In terms of education, 24.7% have a bachelor’s degree or above, 30.1% have a college degree, and 45.2% have a technical secondary school/high school degree or below.
In terms of salary, in 2025, the per capita annual salary of enterprises above designated size is 96,100 yuan, and that of listed companies is 180,000-220,000 yuan; the cumulative growth from 2021 to 2025 is 23.2%, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 5.3%.
As a bridge connecting entities and capital, the professionalism, bottom line and structure of the board secretaries group will profoundly affect the long-term pricing of this industry in the capital market.
In the machinery and equipment industry, the secretary-general has a unique ecosystem.
Their average age is 47.77 years old, 44% are between 40 and 49 years old, 30% are over 50 years old, and only 3 are under 30 years old.
In terms of academic qualifications, the majority are undergraduates (65%), 25% have master’s degrees, 0.8% have doctoral degrees, and 9.2% have college degrees or below; a higher proportion of those with master’s degrees or above in leading companies and companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
In terms of salary, the average salary is 642,500 yuan, which is lower than the average of 754,300 yuan for board secretaries in the A-share market; 42% are below 500,000, 45% are between 500,000 and 1 million, and 13% are above 1 million.
In terms of background, about 30% are promoted internally (finance, securities, legal affairs), and about 70% are recruited externally (investment banks, law firms, accounting firms, and job-hopping within the industry).
Compared with finance, consumption, technology and other industries, machinery and equipment board secretaries have irreplaceable professional thresholds: first, they must understand the industry, equipment, and orders, and be able to interpret mechanical principles, capacity utilization, delivery cycles and downstream demand logic, and open up the “orders-capacity-performance” transmission chain; second, they have export and cross-border compliance capabilities. The industry accounts for a high proportion of exports, and they need to be familiar with customs, foreign exchange, overseas letter disclosure, anti-dumping and local
The third is the project system and the disclosure of large orders. Revenue depends on large projects and complete sets of equipment, so the timing of disclosure needs to be accurately controlled. The fourth is the sensitivity of technology iterations. Industrial machines, robots, and precision manufacturing iterate quickly and need to be quickly translated into the language of the capital market. The fifth is the pressure on small and medium-sized market value management. There are many small and micro companies, high volatility, and little institutional coverage. It is necessary to take into account compliance, disclosure, and market value maintenance. Investor relations are more difficult.
Among the group of board secretaries, there are “top-salaried board secretaries” like Sun Feng of Saiteng Holdings who hold four positions, and “basic-salary board secretaries” of small and micro enterprises such as Huaxi Technology Shi Shouyi; there is the 73-year-old “veteran board secretary” Noli shares Ding Yi, and there is the 28-year-old “post-95s board secretary” Kaige Seiki Qiu Jinglin.
There are also “risky board secretaries” Haozhi Electromechanical Xiao Yonglin and Xinlai Yingcai Zhu Mengyong who have touched the red line; Xianheng International Ye Xingbo, who is highly educated and highly paid but has repeatedly violated regulations; Wu Sanqiang, the “institutional board secretary” of CIMC, the king of interaction; Li Wenmei, the “legendary board secretary” who has crossed over into the industry, etc.
Their stories constitute a colorful picture of the ecology of board secretaries in the machinery and equipment industry, and have also brought different influences and inspirations to the development of the industry.
