China’s manufacturing sector accelerates intelligent upgrade in 2025: data

China’s manufacturing sector accelerated its intelligent upgrade in 2025, with double-digit growth in smart equipment procurement, according to data from the State Taxation Administration.

Nationwide, manufacturing enterprises increased their procurement of automated and digital equipment by over 10 percent.

Driven by this trend, sales revenue of the smart equipment manufacturing industry grew by 28.1 percent year on year. Among them, industrial robot manufacturing and special-purpose robot manufacturing saw year-on-year increases of 17.4 percent and 42.1 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the integration of digital and real economies continued to deepen in 2025.

In 2025, sales revenue in the digital product manufacturing sector went up 9.4 percent year on year. Manufacturing enterprises' spending on procurement of digital technologies grew by 10.4 percent year on year, up 3.5 percentage points compared to the previous year.

The green transformation of manufacturing also advanced at a faster pace last year.

In 2025, manufacturing enterprises' expenditures on environmental management services increased by 7.3 percent year on year.

The share of sales revenue of high-energy-consuming manufacturing in total manufacturing sales revenue edged down 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous year, reflecting continuous optimization of the industrial structure.

New energy-related industries also expedited their development, with sales revenue in the new energy vehicle manufacturing and lithium-ion battery manufacturing sectors shooting up 14.3 percent and 25.1 percent year on year, respectively.