Profits of China’s major industrial firms increased by 15.5% year-on-year to 6.03 trillion yuan (US$904.7 billion) in the first nine months of 2026, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
Industrial profits also recorded a 14.4% year-on-year increase in September, reflecting continued growth in the country’s industrial sector.
Sectoral data for the January-to-September period showed that mining profits rose by 38.2%, while manufacturing profits increased by 17.0%. However, profits in the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water declined by 14.3%.
High-tech manufacturing emerged as a major driver of industrial profit growth. Profits among major high-tech manufacturing enterprises surged by 52.0% year-on-year during the first nine months, exceeding the overall growth rate of major industrial firms by 36.5 percentage points.
The sector accounted for 25.5% of total industrial profits, representing an increase of 6.2 percentage points compared with the same period last year.
The electronics sector also made a significant contribution to the growth. Its profits doubled year-on-year between January and September, driving a 9.6-percentage-point increase in the profits of all industrial enterprises and providing substantial support for the sector’s overall performance.
Meanwhile, profits in high-tech manufacturing surged 52% year on year, outperforming the overall industrial average by 36.5 percentage points. The growth was supported by rising demand for artificial intelligence computing power and data centre infrastructure.
During the first three quarters of 2026, high-tech manufacturing accounted for 25.5% of the total profits generated by China’s major industrial firms, an increase of 6.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
NBS statistician Yu Weining said China’s industrial sector was steadily shifting towards a more advanced and innovation-driven structure as high-end manufacturing continued to develop and new quality productive forces expanded.
Earlier data showed that China’s value-added industrial output increased by 5.3% year on year in the first three quarters of 2026.
Source: Xinhua News Agency