Workers complete assembling an electric vehicle (EV) at China's EV start-up Leapmotor in Jinhua, East China's Zhejiang Province on April 1, 2024. The smart EV factory delivered 14,567 new vehicles in March, a yearly increase of 136 percent. Photo: VCG

China's high-tech manufacturing sector's profits rose 6.3 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2024, driven by rapid production growth. Analysts noted on Sunday that high-tech industries continue to show strong momentum, with new quality productive forces steadily gaining strength.

The figure outpaced the industrial sector's average profit growth by 9.8 percentage points, highlighting the sector's strong resilience, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Sunday.

High-tech manufacturing profits contributed 1.1 percentage points to the overall profit growth of all industrial enterprises above the designated size. Within high-end equipment manufacturing, profits in spacecraft and launch vehicle production rose 17.1 percent year-on-year, while profits in specialized semiconductor equipment manufacturing rose 13.2 percent, NBS statistician Yu Weining said in a statement.

Profits in smart manufacturing sectors showed notable growth, with intelligent in-vehicle equipment manufacturing up 27.5 percent, wearable smart device manufacturing up 25.6 percent and smart unmanned aerial vehicles rising by 10.2 percent. Profits of green manufacturing sectors, such as lithium-ion battery production, surged by 58.8 percent.

With regions and sectors actively implementing policies to expand domestic demand and boost consumption, alongside stable demand in international markets, several consumer goods sectors continued to grow rapidly, including textiles, furniture and food processing, Yu said.

"Industrial profits in the high-tech and consumer goods sectors maintained relatively fast growth, signaling an improvement in domestic market demand," Zhou Maohua, an economist at China Everbright Bank, told the Global Times on Sunday.

High-tech industries continue to show robust growth momentum, with new quality productive forces steadily expanding, Zhou said.

Overall profits of industrial enterprises above the designated size dropped year-on-year, but their total profit still exceeded 5 trillion yuan ($702 billion) in the first three quarters. During the period, profits for industrial enterprises above the designated size nationwide totaled 5.228 trillion yuan, an increase of 575.43 billion yuan compared with profits in the January-August period. 

Due to multiple factors, including insufficient market demand, a drop in industrial product prices and a significantly higher base in the same period last year, industrial profits in the first three quarters fell 3.5 percent year-on-year, Yu said.

While profits for large-scale industrial enterprises dropped, the resilience of new industrial drivers became evident. With market expectations stabilizing and rising confidence among industrial companies, a further recovery can be expected, Yu noted.

Multiple departments of the Chinese government have recently rolled out policies to boost economic development. 

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology vowed on Wednesday to focus on supporting industrial powerhouses and major cities to consolidate their advantages. It will also strive to enhance the promotion of smart home appliance consumption and advance the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector, with a focus on making greater efforts in stabilizing growth, expanding demand, boosting momentum and improving the business environment.