The machinery industry successfully completed the goals and tasks for 2025 and the “14th Five-Year Plan”, with many indicators outstanding.
It was learned from the relevant information conference on February 5 that in 2025, with the support of a series of policies and measures to stabilize growth such as the national “two emphasis” and “two new” policies and measures, the machinery industry will make steady progress in economic operation and achieve positive results in high-quality development.
The added value has achieved rapid growth, the production and sales situation has been stable and improving, the total revenue and profits have increased, foreign trade has shown resilience, and the prosperity index has increased steadily.
In 2025, the economic operation of the machinery industry will slow down from a high level and be stable while making progress.
A good start was achieved in the first quarter; the growth rate slowed down in the second quarter due to factors such as tariff fluctuations, but quickly stabilized due to active responses from all parties; the high and slowing trend continued in the third and fourth quarters, and rapid growth was achieved throughout the year.
The added value of enterprises above designated size increased by 8.2% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 2.3 and 1.8 percentage points higher than that of the national industry and manufacturing industries.
The added value of the five major categories of national economic industries mainly involved all achieved growth.
Among them, the automobile manufacturing industry continued to play a leading role, with a growth rate of 11.5%; the electrical machinery and general equipment manufacturing industries maintained a high growth level, with an increase of 9.2% and 8.0% respectively; the special equipment and instrumentation manufacturing industries operated steadily, with an increase of 4.3% and 6.1% respectively.
The production and marketing situation is stable and improving.
Driven by policies such as “two emphasis” and “two new”, the overall production and sales situation of the machinery industry is better than that of the previous year.
Among the 122 major mechanical products under key monitoring, the output of 85 products increased year-on-year, 13 more than the previous year, and the growth rate was 69.7%.
The production and sales of key products showed the following characteristics: First, automobile production and sales hit a record high, with annual output of 34.531 million vehicles and sales of 34.4 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 10.4% and 9.4% respectively, ranking first in the world for 17 consecutive years.
Second, the output of electrical and electrical products increased significantly. The output of generator sets was 370 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 37.6%; the output of solar cells was 830 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%.
Third, the production of processing equipment was accelerated. The output of metal cutting machine tools was 868,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 9.7%; the output of industrial robots was 773,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 28.0%, and the output reached a new high.
Fourth, construction machinery sales are improving, with 235,000 excavators sold, a year-on-year increase of 17.0%; loaders sold 128,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 18.4%; both growth rates were more than 10 percentage points higher than the previous year.
Fifth, metallurgical equipment, petrochemical equipment, some environmental protection equipment and other products are affected by adjustments in downstream industries, and production is still weak.
The total revenue and profit increased.
In 2025, enterprises above designated size in the machinery industry will achieve operating income of 33.2 trillion yuan, a total record high, a year-on-year increase of 6.0%, and a growth rate 4.9 percentage points higher than the national industry; total profits will be 1.7 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 5.9% year-on-year, and a growth rate 5.3 percentage points higher than the national industry.
Operating income and total profit accounted for 23.9% and 23.1% of the national industry respectively, an increase of 1.1 and 1.2 percentage points respectively from the same period last year.
Foreign trade shows resilience.
In 2025, faced with the severe and complex international environment and foreign trade situation, the machinery industry withstood the pressure and responded effectively. Foreign trade achieved rapid growth, with the total amount reaching a new high, demonstrating strong resilience.
The total import and export volume of goods trade completed by the machinery industry throughout the year was US$1.27 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%.
Among them, the export value was US$986.82 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%; the import value was US$279.98 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 6.6%.
Achieved a trade surplus of US$706.84 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.1%.
The prosperity index rose steadily.
In 2025, the machinery industry prosperity index showed a slowing trend, but it was always within the prosperity range throughout the year, and the overall performance was better than the previous year.
By the end of the year, the machinery industry prosperity index was 104.3, an increase of 1.2 points from the end of the previous year, indicating that the industry’s economic operation continued to maintain a stable and positive trend.
Looking at the sub-indices, five of the six sub-indices are higher than the critical value.
The product index was 104.2, a year-on-year increase of 0.7 points, reflecting the continued positive expansion of the production end; the industry index was 108.6, a year-on-year increase of 2.9 points, indicating that the industry’s development trend continued to improve; the investment index was 100.3, a year-on-year decrease of 8.1 points, reflecting sluggish industry investment and slowing growth; the foreign trade index was 10
5.5, down 0.5 points year-on-year, but still at a high level, highlighting the industry’s foreign trade resilience; the economic efficiency index is 104.4, an increase of 10.4 points year-on-year, indicating that the industry’s economic benefits have significantly improved; the price index is 98.6, although it has increased 0.8 points year-on-year, it is still lower than the critical value, reflecting that overall product prices are still in a downward channel.
Although the economic operation of the machinery industry will make steady progress in 2025, it still faces many industry problems and challenges.
Mainly reflected in three aspects.
First, investment growth has turned negative and industry differentiation has become apparent.
In 2025, the growth rate of fixed asset investment in the machinery industry continued to slow down, with a year-on-year decrease of 2.3%. The growth rate fell by 7.4 percentage points from the previous year, turning from positive to negative, and was lower than the national industrial and manufacturing average level during the same period.
Industry investment is clearly differentiated.
Among the five main categories of national economic industries involved, investment in general equipment and automobile manufacturing maintained growth, with growth rates of 6.2% and 11.7% respectively; while investment in special equipment, electrical machinery and instrumentation manufacturing fell by 7.1%, 10.3% and 17.7% respectively year-on-year.
From the perspective of sub-sectors, among the 14 sub-sectors, investment growth in internal combustion engines, automobiles, food packaging machinery, heavy mining machinery and other industries was relatively good; investment in engineering machinery, instrumentation, machine tools, electrical appliances, office equipment and other industries declined significantly.
Secondly, prices continue to decline and profitability declines.
Affected by the structural contradiction between supply and demand and fierce market competition, the prices of mechanical products continue to decline.
In December 2025, the ex-factory price of machinery industry products fell by 1.5% year-on-year, falling year-on-year for 35 consecutive months.
The ex-factory prices of the five major categories of national economic industries mainly involved fell year-on-year. The ex-factory prices of general equipment, special equipment, automobiles, electrical machinery and instrumentation manufacturing fell by 1.7%, 1.2%, 1.9%, 0.5% and 0.3% respectively year-on-year.
Industry profit margins continue to decline. The operating income profit margin of the machinery industry in 2025 will be 5.14%, down 0.04 percentage points from the previous year and 0.17 percentage points lower than the national industry in the same period.
The task of resolving the structural contradiction between supply and demand in the industry and comprehensively managing “involution” remains arduous.
Finally, accounts receivable are high and collection cycles are extended.
In recent years, accounts receivable in the machinery industry have continued to grow rapidly, accounting for an increasing proportion of operating income and current assets, and the average recovery period has lengthened, becoming a prominent issue affecting corporate capital turnover and stable operations.
At the end of 2025, the total accounts receivable of the machinery industry reached 9.9 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%, accounting for 36.0% of the total national industrial accounts receivable, an increase of 0.8 percentage points year-on-year; accounts receivable accounted for 29.7% of operating income and 35.7% of current assets, both reaching record highs, 10 and 7 percentage points higher than the national industry in the same period.
The average recovery period of accounts receivable is 100.1 days, which is 2.4 days longer than the same period last year and 32.2 days longer than the national industrial average.
Looking at different industries, the average recovery period of accounts in the heavy mining and construction machinery industries exceeds 150 days, and the pressure is particularly prominent.
Looking forward to 2026 and even the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, the development of the machinery industry will be faced with deepening changes in the external environment and increasing risks and challenges.
The international situation is generally tightening, with frequent geopolitical conflicts and sudden changes in the tariff game. The global economy is facing downward pressure, international market demand is shrinking, the foreign trade environment is becoming increasingly complex, and uncertainty has increased significantly.
The contradiction between strong domestic supply and weak demand is prominent, and the problems of price “involution” and difficulty in collecting accounts in some industries have become prominent.
However, favorable conditions supporting the high-quality development of the machinery industry are also constantly accumulating and increasing.
Macroeconomic control and industrial policies continue to intensify, a series of measures conducive to the development of the machinery industry have been introduced, and the industry environment has been continuously optimized.
The fundamentals of the traditional market are solid, the construction of new power systems is accelerating, the agricultural mechanization rate continues to increase, the demand for green transformation in upstream industries and the implementation of major national infrastructure construction projects will continue to drive market demand for related equipment.
The super-large-scale domestic market and the trend of consumption upgrading are superimposed on each other, giving rise to triple opportunities of “new demand” for high-end equipment, “updation demand” for traditional equipment and “digital transformation demand” of enterprises, opening up a broader space for growth for the industry.
The accelerated scientific and technological revolution has injected new momentum into industrial development, green and low-carbon transformation continues to lead to the demand for equipment upgrades, and cross-border integration of industries continues to expand new development space.
The global layout is gradually deepening, and a group of leading companies are actively promoting overseas localized operations and realizing the leap from product output to enterprise output and standard output. The industry’s initiative in global competition continues to increase.
