At the beginning of 2026, the machinery and equipment industry ushered in an impressive start, with multiple frontiers and traditional tracks working together to form a multi-level investment mainline.
The weekly perspective report on the machinery and equipment industry released this week conducted an in-depth analysis around core tracks such as humanoid robots, engineering machinery, semiconductor equipment, and lithium battery equipment, revealing current industry trends and investment opportunities, and maintaining an overall “outperform” rating.
In the field of humanoid robots, the continued warm-up of Tesla Optimus V3 has become the focus of the market.
Tesla has clarified its mass production plan for the Gen3 humanoid robot and emphasized its positioning as a “universal robot” that can autonomously learn to perform tasks by observing human behavior.
This marks that the “physical AI” industry revolution is accelerating, forming a “data-algorithm-hardware” closed-loop iteration.
In the future, this product is expected to gradually extend from B-end applications to the C-end consumer market, opening up long-term space for millions of units.
Subsequent catalytic events worthy of attention include the targeted landing of Gen3, new product releases, Spring Festival Gala robot performances, and the IPO progress of domestic robot manufacturers.
Investors can focus on key links such as dexterous hands, sensors, and core components to seize the structural opportunities brought about by technological breakthroughs.
In terms of construction machinery, sales of excavators achieved strong growth in January 2026.
Domestic sales reached 8,723 units, a year-on-year increase of 61.4%; export sales were 9,985 units, a year-on-year increase of 40.5%. Both domestic and foreign sales achieved high growth.
Even excluding the base effect of the Spring Festival holiday in January 2025, domestic sales still increased by about 35% year-on-year, and exports increased by about 18%, showing strong momentum for industry recovery.
Domestic demand benefited from the recovery of the general cycle, while external demand was partially driven by adjustments to Russia’s scrap tax policy, and the overall performance was outstanding.
Looking forward to the whole year, it is expected that the domestic market is expected to achieve a growth of more than 10%, export growth exceeds 15%, and the upward trend of domestic and foreign demand resonance is clear.
Leading companies such as Sany Heavy Industry, Xugong Machinery, Zoomlion, and Hengli Hydraulics deserve special attention.
The prosperity of the semiconductor equipment sector continues to be established.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, ASML’s newly signed orders reached 13.158 billion euros, a significant year-on-year increase of 86% and a month-on-month increase of 144%, indicating that downstream wafer factories have increased confidence in AI-driven logic and storage expansion.
Revenue in mainland China reached 2.73 billion euros, accounting for 36%. The absolute value is close to a historical high, reflecting the accelerated process of domestic substitution.
TSMC’s 2026 capital expenditure guidance is as high as US$56 billion, a year-on-year increase of 37%, setting a record high and further validating the upward trend of the global semiconductor boom.
There is an obvious gap in domestic advanced logic production capacity. Under the background of independent control, the certainty of production expansion is strong; storage has entered a large-cycle upward stage, and the flexibility of dual-memory (DRAM and NAND) production expansion is worth looking forward to.
At the same time, the incremental demand brought about by the increased volume of advanced packaging is also optimistic.
Equipment companies such as China Micro, Huahai Qingke, Shengmei Shanghai, and parts manufacturers such as Pioneer Precision and Fuchuang Precision are worthy of recommendation.
Lithium battery equipment has ushered in an important technological breakthrough – the dual-electrode dry process has achieved large-scale mass production.
Tesla announced that its 4680 battery has been fully manufactured using anode and cathode dry methods, marking a new stage in the battery front-end process.
Compared with the traditional wet process, the dry process eliminates the need for solvents, coating and drying processes, which can significantly reduce energy consumption and factory construction costs, and improve production efficiency.
Although the current solid-state battery production line is still dominated by the wet method, the dry method is becoming an important direction for the next-generation solid-state battery front-end process due to its comprehensive advantages.
This milestone event will promote the upgrading of the industrial chain and benefit equipment manufacturers with technical reserves.
Head equipment manufacturers such as Lead Intelligent, Xianhui Technology, and Haimuxing, as well as composite current collector equipment companies such as Dongwei Technology and Jiaocheng Ultrasonic are worthy of attention.
The forklift and mobile robot sectors also showed positive signals.
In December 2025, the export sales of forklifts increased by 4% year-on-year, maintaining a moderate growth trend. The decline in domestic sales was mainly due to the higher base in the same period last year and the reduction in shipments after the company completed its annual target.
Leading companies are actively deploying smart logistics and unmanned forklifts. They have launched embodied intelligence-related products in Q4 of 2025, and “unmanned” application scenarios are expected to increase in volume rapidly.
Companies such as Lanjian Intelligent, Hangcha Group, and Anhui Heli have first-mover advantages in intelligent logistics system integration and deserve attention.
There are also bright spots in other segments.
Wind power installed capacity maintains a high boom, with newly installed capacity reaching 119.3GW in 2025, a record high, driving the performance of Zhongji United, the leader in tower lifting equipment, to exceed expectations, with single-quarter net profit increasing by 80% year-on-year.
The PCB industry has benefited from the high-end trend driven by AI. The demand for multi-layer boards and fine wiring has increased, which has promoted the updating and upgrading of drilling, exposure, inspection and other equipment.
The substitution of domestically produced instruments is accelerating, and electrical measurement instrument manufacturers such as Puyuan Precision Technology and Dingyang Technology have benefited from policy support and overseas expansion.
The concentration of the testing service industry has increased, and leaders such as CTI Testing and Radio and Television Measurement have achieved steady growth through national layout and lean management.
However, the report also prompted the need to pay attention to the possible industry impacts caused by domestic macroeconomic fluctuations, overseas market uncertainty, and lower-than-expected downstream production expansion.
However, judging from the current data, many sub-sectors have shown signs of positive recovery. Especially driven by the two-wheel drive of technological innovation and domestic substitution, the machinery and equipment sector has strong fundamental support and development potential.
It is recommended that investors seize the opportunities of technological change, focus on high-quality supply chain links, and select core enterprises with global competitiveness and continuous innovation capabilities.
