China's industrial sector quickened digital transformation and green development in the first quarter of 2025, with production in new energy and smart equipment sectors seeing significant surges.

The Implementation Plan for Promoting Equipment Renewal in the Industrial Sector, issued in March 2024, prioritizes digital transformation and green upgrading to advance the high-end, smart, and green development of the manufacturing sector.
In the first quarter of this year, the added value of the digital product manufacturing rose by 10.2 percent year on year. Specific industries such as unmanned aerial vehicles, specialized navigation, surveying, meteorological and marine instruments, and smart in-vehicle devices saw added value growth rates of 49.6 percent, 25.5 percent, and 25 percent respectively.

Production of new energy vehicles and lithium-ion power batteries grew by 45.4 percent and 39.2 percent year on year, respectively, while wind turbine production soared by 74.4 percent.

"Digitalization provides revolutionary and innovative technologies and solutions for green and low-carbon transitions. It drives green transformation across all elements, the entire industrial chain and value chain of the industry, helping to build a green manufacturing system," said Li Yang, Deputy Director of the Planning Institute at China Center for Information Industry Development.

The demand for equipment upgrades has fueled production expansion. In the first quarter, the added value of the equipment manufacturing sector grew by 10.9 percent year on year, with key areas such as railway, shipbuilding, electronics, and machinery all recording growth rates exceeding 10 percent. Production of metal-cutting machine tools and industrial robots increased by 20.5 percent and 26 percent respectively. Meanwhile, sales revenue of the equipment manufacturing industry rose by 9.7 percent from the same period last year, indicating a smooth alignment between production and sales.

"China's economy has shifted from high-speed growth to high-quality development. It is necessary to improve the quality and efficiency of what in stock and generate increments in the process of improvement. The total idle assets of equipment in the industrial sector had already reached 28 trillion yuan (about 3.84 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2023. As the new industrialization continues to deepen, the demand for equipment upgrades has grown more and more, injecting strong momentum to our future development," said Li.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by 2027, China's investment in industrial equipment will increase by more than 25 percent from the 2023 levels. The numerical control rate of key manufacturing processes is expected to reach 75 percent, with digital transformation covering all the major industrial provinces and key industrial parks.