8.7% Growth in China Machinery Sector for First Three Quarters, Industrial Robots a Bright Spot

In the first three quarters of 2025, my country's large-scale machinery industry showed a positive development trend of "rapid production growth and steady operation," with many core indicators performing exceptionally well. In particular, the industrial robot industry experienced rapid growth, providing strong support for the stable operation of the national economy.

Overall growth led the national industrial sector; key product output showed strong growth.

Data shows that in the first three quarters, the added value of the large-scale machinery industry increased by 8.7% year-on-year. This growth rate not only achieved rapid growth but also exceeded the national average industrial added value by 2.5 percentage points, highlighting the important supporting role of the machinery industry in the industrial system. Driven by multiple factors such as the gradual recovery of market demand and continued policy support, the machinery industry's production vitality continued to be released.

Looking at specific products, among the key monitored machinery industry products, 68% of the products achieved year-on-year growth in cumulative output, maintaining a high level of product growth and demonstrating the industry's strong resilience. Among them, the output growth rates of several key products closely related to national economic development and people's livelihood consumption were particularly outstanding: the automobile industry, as an important pillar of the machinery industry, saw its output growth rate exceed 10% year-on-year in the first three quarters, not only meeting the needs of the domestic consumer market but also showing continued positive export performance; in the new energy field, the output of solar cells also grew steadily at a rate exceeding 10%, providing a solid guarantee for the development of my country's new energy industry and the advancement of the "dual carbon" target; and as a key piece of equipment for infrastructure construction, the output growth rate of excavators also exceeded 10%, reflecting the stable growth trend of domestic infrastructure construction investment and the continuous release of demand for construction machinery.

Industrial robot production achieved double-digit growth, becoming a core driver of intelligent manufacturing.

Against the backdrop of the intelligent and integrated transformation of manufacturing, industrial robots, as core products in the field of intelligent equipment, saw particularly impressive production performance in the first three quarters, with a significant year-on-year increase of 29.8%. This double-digit growth rate not only far exceeded the overall growth rate of the machinery industry but also stood out in the intelligent equipment sub-sector, becoming a key force driving industry growth. Data shows that industrial robot production reached 595,000 units in the first three quarters, exceeding the total production of the previous year and setting a new historical high for the same period, marking the official entry of my country's industrial robot industry into a "golden age" of rapid development.

From the perspective of application scenarios, the scope of industrial robot adoption is continuously expanding. In the automotive manufacturing sector, with the continuous expansion of new energy vehicle production capacity, the demand for high-precision, high-stability industrial robots in welding, assembly, and painting processes has surged. In the first three quarters, the automotive industry's industrial robot procurement volume increased by over 35% year-on-year, effectively improving the automation rate and product quality stability of automobile production. In the electronics and information industry, the precision manufacturing needs of consumer electronics and semiconductors have driven the widespread application of miniaturized, highly flexible industrial robots, helping companies achieve precise assembly of micro-components. The application density of robots in related fields increased by 20% compared to the same period last year. Furthermore, in industries such as food processing, logistics and warehousing, and medical devices, industrial robots are gradually replacing manual labor in repetitive and labor-intensive tasks, reducing labor costs while improving production efficiency and operational safety.

From an industry support perspective, the rapid growth in industrial robot production has also driven the coordinated development of upstream and downstream industrial chains. In the upstream core component sector, the localization rate of key components such as high-precision reducers, servo motors, and controllers has been continuously improving. In the first three quarters, the output value of related component companies increased by more than 25% year-on-year, effectively reducing the industrial robot industry's dependence on imported components. In the downstream system integration sector, customized robot solutions for different industry needs are emerging one after another, and the number of system integrators has increased by 15% compared with the same period last year, further improving the industrial robot industry ecosystem.