A robot makes coffee at a booth at the 26th China High-Tech Fair (CHTF) in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 14, 2024. A variety of robots and products of related industries are exhibited at the ongoing 26th CHTF, attracting lots of attention.(Photo: Xinhua)

China's industrial output accelerated at a faster pace in the first two months of 2025, with notable acceleration in equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.

The value-added output of industrial enterprises above the designated size rose by 5.9 percent year-on-year, 0.1 percentage points more than the full-year growth rate in 2024, according to the NBS.

The 5.9 percent rise beat expectations for a 5.3 percent rise in a Reuters poll of 26 analysts, Reuters reported on Monday. The figure was also higher than the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts, per Bloomberg. 

Notably, the value-added output of equipment manufacturing grew by 10.6 percent year-on-year, accelerating by 2.9 percentage points from a year earlier, while high-tech manufacturing rose by 9.1 percent, up 0.2 percentage points, per NBS data.

Output of new-energy vehicles surged by 47.7 percent year-on-year while the output of 3D printing equipment rose by 30.2 percent and industrial robot production increased by 27 percent.

In terms of the three major categories, the value-added output of the mining sector increased by 4.3 percent, with the manufacturing sector rising by 6.9 percent and the output of utilities - electricity, heat, gas and water - expanding by 1.1 percent.

Meanwhile, in the first two months, investment in high-tech industries increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year, while that of information services surged by 66.4 percent year-on-year. 

Amid the accelerating integration between technological innovation and industrial innovation, cutting-edge high-tech fields such as information technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly driving China's industrial transformation, emerging as a new trend in industrial development, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui said at a press conference on Monday. 

Domestically developed general-purpose AI large models are being rapidly adopted in key industries such as electronics and automobiles, empowering industrial innovation and development. The expansion of computing power demand has also driven rapid growth in related products, said Fu. 

China has major advantages in integrating emerging sectors with industrial development, featuring its complete industrial system, huge market of 1.4 billion people and rich sources of cultivated talent, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

Wang said that the rise of emerging sectors will further propel industrial advancements by promoting smart production, creating new business models in sectors such as intelligent manufacturing and the Industrial Internet, and enhancing the country's international competitiveness with the sustainable development of the industrial economy. 

In January and February, the output of high-tech products such as integrated circuit wafers increased by 19.6 percent year-on-year. The growth rate for bullet trains was 64 percent year-on-year and the figure for civilian drones surged by 91.5 percent, according to Fu. 

This year's Government Work Report noted that "we should pursue integrated advancements in technological and industrial innovation, press ahead with new industrialization, expand and strengthen advanced manufacturing, and vigorously develop modern services. This will enable us to build up the momentum of new growth drivers while upgrading and reviving traditional ones."

Chinese localities have been stepping up efforts to bolster the innovation and development of targeted sectors. Earlier this month, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region released an action plan from 2025 to 2027 to further develop the integration of AI and manufacturing. The region aims to drive AI-related industrial output to exceed 100 billion yuan ($13.82 billion) and lay the foundation for building an ASEAN-oriented AI industry hub by 2027.

Wang noted that sectors such as AI, high-end manufacturing and green manufacturing are likely to further unleash growth potential. With sustained policy support and expanding market demand, industrial production in the first quarter is likely to sustain the momentum, Wang said. 

Global Times