A staff member works on an assembly line at a farm machinery manufacturing company in Jining City, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 15, 2022. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)
BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Recent data shows that investment in China's manufacturing sector continues to remain stable growth, witnessing accelerated industrial upgrading and accumulated new drivers for development, reported Economic Information Daily on Monday.
-- Growth of investment in manufacturing boosts resilience of real economy
Manufacturing production in China has been warming up since the beginning of this year. Profits of the equipment manufacturing industry climbed 3.2 percent from January to October, rallying for six consecutive months, with the growth rate up 2.6 percentage points than that during the first nine months, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Driven by the new energy industry, profits of the electrical machinery sector has increased by 29 percent during the first ten months, when a 0.8-percent profit growth has also been seen in the automobile manufacturing sector, marking the first positive cumulative growth seen in the sector this year.
From January to October this year, investment in manufacturing went up 9.7 percent year on year. Recent regional data shows that the manufacturing sector has become the main driver of investment growth in the same period, with the performance of manufacturing investment in many places exceeding expectations.
For instance, according to data from the Economy and Information Technology Department of Zhejiang, by November 26, more than 600 major manufacturing projects in the province with investment of over 1 billion yuan (about 139.85 million U.S. dollars) had realized more than 100 percent of their annual investment plan.
Data from the Industry and Information Technology Department of Jiangsu shows that by the end of October, 450 of Jiangsu's provincial-level major industrial projects had completed 95.5 percent of the planned investment of the year, expected to meet the annual target one month ahead of schedule.
Manufacturing is the foundation of real economy. The growth rate of China's manufacturing investment in the first ten months of 2022 is at a relatively high level compared with the same period each year since 2015, contributing over 40 percent to the total investment growth, said Qiao Baohua, an expert with the China Center for Information Industry Development, noting that the investment in manufacturing is supporting the industrial economy to further show resilience and achieve stable recovery.
-- Robust performance of high-tech manufacturing sector posts new driving force
In particular, the high-tech manufacturing sector posted strong growth momentum with increase seen in multiple aspects. NBS data shows that the output of the high-tech manufacturing industry witnessed a year-on-year increase of 10.6 percent in October, 1.3 percentage points higher than that in September.
During the January to October period, the investment in high-tech industries surged 23.6 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than that of the first three quarters. Investment in electronic and communication equipment manufacturing, as well as medical equipment and measuring instrument manufacturing had increased by nearly 30 percent.
In October, the output of new energy vehicles, charging piles and photovoltaic cell products increased by 84.8 percent, 81.4 percent and 69.9 percent respectively, continuing to maintain a booming development.
Qiao points out that comprehensive analysis of recent data indicates that high-tech manufacturing is serving as an important engine that powers the steady growth of industrial economy and the accelerated transformation of its driving force.
Series of supportive policies have been taking effect since the beginning of this year, Qiao noted, adding that the policy-based instruments and special bonds have been promoted at a faster pace, boosting the implementation of investment projects. Besides, China has been constantly improving the technology innovation system with enterprises as the main focus, which has been continuously stimulating enterprises to increase their innovation investment.
-- Technical transformation investment up as digitization deepens in manufacturing sector
According to recent statistics, the technical transformation investment in east China's Shandong Province had increased 7.3 percent year on year from January to October 2022. A total of 11,621 technical transformation projects with investment of more than 5 million yuan were implemented on a rolling basis, indicating the enhancing role of technical transformation in stabilizing investment. Double-digit growth is also seen in technical transformation investment of other Chinese provinces including north China's Hebei and central China's Henan in the same period.
From a nation-wide perspective, in the first ten months of 2022, investment in technical transformation in the manufacturing sector grew by 10.4 percent year on year, 0.7 percentage points higher than that of manufacturing investment as a whole. Technical transformation investment accounted for 40.9 percent of the total investment in manufacturing, 0.2 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year.
Data proves that technical transformation investment is an important supporting factor of the recovery of manufacturing investment, according to Zhang Zhiqian, a researcher with the investment research institute of China Jianyin Investment Ltd.
Driven by new technology, digital transformation is an effective way to cultivate new industries, which not only helps enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency, but also promotes further optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure in the manufacturing sector, Zhang said.
The accelerating digitization trend in the manufacturing industry is also reflected by a number of figures in various dimensions. From January to October this year, revenue made by industrial software products increased 12.8 percent year on year. In October, output of industrial control computers and systems increased by 44.7 percent and that of industrial robots 14.4 percent. China currently has over 4,000 "5G + Industrial Internet" projects under construction.
As China's innovation capacity continues to improve, it is expected that new technologies and new forms of industry will constantly emerge, with digital transformation of the manufacturing industry remaining its rapid growth, generating new drivers for development.
(Edited by Yu Huichen with Xinhua Silk Road, yuhuichen@xinhua.org)
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