Profits of China's major industrial firms up 15.2 pct in 1st two months

Profits of China's major industrial firms increased 15.2 percent year on year in the first two months of 2026, with emerging sectors such as equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing serving as major growth drivers, official data showed Friday.

Industrial firms with an annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.9 million U.S. dollars) saw their combined profits hit 1.02 trillion yuan during the January-February period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

From January to February, various regions and departments intensified the implementation of more proactive and effective macro policies, focusing on leveraging the integrated effects of existing and new policies. As a result, profits of major industrial firms accelerated in growth, with most industries seeing a rebound in profits, according to the NBS.

Among China's 41 industrial categories, 24 industries saw their profits increase year on year in the first two months, and 26 industries saw faster profit growth, narrowing profit decline, or turn from profit decline to increase compared with the whole year of 2025.

In January to February, the total profit of China's major enterprises in high-tech manufacturing rose by 58.7 percent year on year, 45.4 percentage points faster than the whole of 2025, with profits of the manufacturing of intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles, the manufacturing of smart vehicle-mounted equipment and the manufacturing of other smart consumer devices growing by 59.3 percent, 50 percent and 31.3 percent respectively.

Driven by the rapid development and surging demand of industries related to new growth drivers, the total profit of major raw-material manufacturing enterprises went up by 88.3 percent year on year in January to February, 71.1 percentage points faster than the whole of the previous year.

"In the first two months of 2026, China's industrial economy got off to a good start. In particular, the accelerating cultivation of new quality productive forces and new growth drivers played a bigger role in guiding enterprises towards benefits. Along with the advancement of digital and intelligent industrial transformation and the greater empowerment of various industries by artificial intelligence, profits of sectors such as electronic components, intelligent devices and industrial robots grew rapidly, which also brought simultaneous improvement of upstream and downstream enterprises in relevant industrial chains. Meanwhile, green and low-carbon sectors including lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products achieved good profits and became important increments in the growth of industrial enterprises' profits. The effectiveness of industrial transformation and upgrading is being reflected in the benefit rises of industrial enterprises, whose profit structures were continuously optimized," said Chen Xi, researcher with the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission.