On February 5, an information conference on the economic operation situation of the machinery industry throughout 2025 was held.
According to relevant data, the development trend of the machinery industry is good in 2025. The added value of enterprises above designated size will increase by 8.2% year-on-year, and the growth rate is 2.3 and 1.8 percentage points higher than that of the national industry and manufacturing industry.
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.
From the perspective of production and sales situation, in 2025, driven by the “double emphasis” and “two new” policies, the overall production and sales situation of the machinery industry will be 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 show various characteristics.
First, automobile production and sales hit a record high again, with annual output of 34.531 million units and sales of 34.4 million units, 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.
In terms of revenue and profits, enterprises above designated size in the machinery industry will achieve operating income of 33.2 trillion yuan in 2025, a total record high, a year-on-year increase of 6.0%, a growth rate 4.9 percentage points higher than the national industry; total profits will be 1.7 trillion yuan, a growth rate that has changed from a decline in the previous year to growth, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%, 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.
However, 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.
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, there are also many favorable conditions to support the high-quality development of the industry.
First, macro-control and industrial policies have continued 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.
Second, 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.
Third, the domestic ultra-large-scale 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.
Fourth, the accelerated scientific and technological revolution has injected new momentum into industrial development, green and low-carbon transformation continues to lead the demand for equipment upgrades, and cross-border integration of industries continues to expand new development space.
Fifth, the global layout is gradually deepening. A group of leading companies are actively promoting overseas localized operations and realizing the leap from product export to enterprise export and standard export. The industry’s initiative in global competition continues to increase.
Taken together, there will be both opportunities and challenges for the development of the machinery industry in 2026, but the favorable conditions are generally stronger than the unfavorable factors.
With the implementation of the strategic deployment of building a modern industrial system at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, as well as the implementation of policies related to stabilizing growth and promoting transformation at the Central Economic Work Conference, the machinery industry is expected to continue to maintain a stable operating trend, with the main indicator growth rate expected to be around 5.5% throughout the year.
