China Industrial Output +4.1% YoY in April 2026

China's industrial production maintained stable growth in April 2026, with the value-added output of large-scale industrial enterprises rising 4.1% year-on-year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, output increased 0.05%. The data was interpreted by Sun Xiao, chief statistician of the NBS Industrial Department.

Among the three major categories, mining output grew 3.8%, manufacturing rose 4.0%, and the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas, and water increased 5.3%. Of the 41 industrial sectors, 29 saw output growth, representing 70.7% of all sectors. Out of 626 tracked industrial products, 321 recorded output gains, a growth rate of 51.3%.

Equipment manufacturing continued to expand rapidly, with value-added output up 8.3% year-on-year, accelerating 0.1 percentage points from March and contributing 74.5% to overall industrial growth. All eight equipment manufacturing sub-sectors increased, led by the electronics industry, which grew 15.6%—its fastest pace in two years—and contributed 38.4% to total industrial growth. Other strong performers included automobiles (+9.2%), railway, ship, aerospace, and other transport equipment (+8.2%), instruments and meters (+7.5%), and special-purpose equipment (+6.2%). High-end equipment products such as steam turbines for power stations (+33.2%), railway locomotives (+30.6%), and medical equipment and devices (+17.1%) saw robust production.

High-tech manufacturing accelerated further, with output rising 12.8% year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points faster than the previous month, contributing 52.1% to overall industrial growth—up 17.1 percentage points from March. Within this category, electronic device manufacturing surged 29.2%, special equipment for the electronics industry increased 23.1%, and aircraft manufacturing grew 22.0%. The "AI+" trend drove output of memory chips (+32.1%) and hard disk drives (+8.7%). New growth points such as embodied intelligence and human-machine collaboration boosted robot-related products: robot reducers (+38.3%), industrial robots (+15.1%), and service robots (+12.3%).

Digital product manufacturing grew strongly, with output up 12.0% year-on-year, accelerating 2.4 percentage points from March and contributing 39.6% to total industrial growth—a rise of 17.4 percentage points. Electronic components and equipment manufacturing rose 16.4%, and intelligent equipment manufacturing grew 14.3%. Production equipment like 3D printers (+43.6%), CNC forging machines (+16.2%), and CNC metal-cutting machine tools (+16.0%) saw high growth. Core industrial automation components such as automatic control instruments and systems (+17.1%), industrial control computers and systems (+15.3%), and CNC devices for machine tools (+13.8%) also increased.

Green products showed good growth momentum amid the ongoing green transformation. Driven by the energy transition, biomass fuel processing (+26.7%) and biomass gas production and supply (+13.6%) expanded. Output of hydroelectric generating sets rose 47.4%, and lithium-ion batteries grew 31.0%. Supply of green materials increased, with bio-based material manufacturing up 19.5%, carbon fiber and composites (+20.7%), and bio-based chemical fibers (+16.8%).

Industrial exports accelerated, with export delivery value of large-scale industrial enterprises reaching 1.4 trillion yuan, up 10.6% year-on-year, 1.9 percentage points faster than in March. Equipment manufacturing played a key supporting role, accounting for 74.4% of total industrial export delivery value, up 0.9 percentage points. Export delivery values of automobiles (+30.9%), railway, ship, aerospace (+28.7%), and special equipment (+15.3%) all achieved double-digit growth. The electronics industry's export delivery value grew 8.8%, contributing 31.8% to total industrial export growth.

Overall, the industrial economy maintained a stable and progressive trend in April, with new growth drivers developing rapidly. However, external conditions remain complex and volatile, with industrial enterprises still facing issues such as insufficient market demand and uneven profit distribution among sectors. Moving forward, China will continue to fully and accurately implement the new development philosophy, accelerate the creation of a new development pattern, promote the integration of technological and industrial innovation, cultivate and strengthen new productive forces, and steadily advance high-quality industrial development.

Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China. Original: https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/sjjd/202605/t20260518_1963736.html