National Bureau of Statistics: Industrial enterprise profits rose 15.5% year-on-year in the first quarter

On April 27, the National Bureau of Statistics officially released the profit data for industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide for the first quarter of 2026. Data shows that profits of industrial enterprises above designated size in the first quarter increased by 15.5% year-on-year, accelerating by 0.3 percentage points compared to January—February. The authorities explicitly stated that the performance of industrial enterprises continues to improve, with significant results in cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, and the trend of high-quality industry development is becoming increasingly clear.

Yu Weining, Chief Statistician of the Industrial Department at the National Bureau of Statistics, interpreted that looking at core profitability indicators, the gross profit of industrial enterprises above designated size in the first quarter increased by 7.9% year-on-year, accelerating by 1.0 percentage points from January to February. The steady rise in gross profit provided strong support for the rapid growth of corporate profits, highlighting the continuously enhancing resilience of industrial enterprises' profitability.

In terms of industry structure distribution, different sectors presented a differentiated growth trend. High-tech manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, and raw material manufacturing performed prominently, becoming the core forces driving the growth of industrial profits. Among them, profits of equipment manufacturing enterprises above designated size increased by 21.0% year-on-year, driving the overall industrial enterprise profit growth up by 6.8 percentage points. Their profits accounted for 33.7% of total industrial enterprise profits, an increase of 1.7 percentage points year-on-year. Driven by multiple factors such as improved production momentum and recovering product prices, profits in the electronics sector surged by 124.5% year-on-year, becoming the main driver of the rapid profit growth in equipment manufacturing.

High-tech manufacturing demonstrated strong growth vitality, with profits increasing by 47.4% year-on-year in the first quarter, driving the overall industrial enterprise profit growth up by 7.9 percentage points. With the rapid development of emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors, the profitability of upstream and downstream enterprises in related industrial chains continues to improve. Specifically, profits in the optical fiber manufacturing, optoelectronic device manufacturing, and display device manufacturing industries grew by 336.8%, 43.0%, and 36.3% respectively, with the empowering role of emerging industries continuing to stand out.

Raw material manufacturing enterprises above designated size also delivered an impressive report, with profits increasing by 77.9% year-on-year in the first quarter, achieving a significant improvement in industry profitability. In sub-sectors, the petroleum processing industry turned losses into gains year-on-year, realizing a total profit of 22.94 billion yuan; profits in the chemical industry increased by 54.5% year-on-year. Benefiting from factors such as rising global chemical prices and capacity release, profitability levels improved significantly, becoming an important support for the growth of the raw material manufacturing industry.

The effects of cost reduction and efficiency enhancement continued to manifest, becoming an important aid to the improvement of industrial enterprise profitability. Data shows that the cost per 100 yuan of operating revenue for industrial enterprises above designated size in the first quarter was 84.93 yuan, continuing to decline since the beginning of this year; the operating profit margin of industrial enterprises above designated size rose to 5.11%, reaching the highest level for the same period since 2023, with the quality of corporate profitability continuously optimizing.

Pang Miao, a specially appointed senior researcher at the National Institution for Finance and Development, analyzed that the current focus of profit growth for Chinese industrial enterprises is shifting from traditional labor-intensive industries to capital-intensive and technology-driven industries. The positive trend of "increasing revenue and increasing profits" for industrial enterprises in the first quarter marks that enterprises have gradually entered a bonus period of high-quality growth through continuous cost reduction and efficiency enhancement and optimization of product structures, and the endogenous growth momentum of the industrial economy continues to strengthen.

Overall, the profits of industrial enterprises in the first quarter continued the trend of recovery and improvement, the industry structure continued to optimize, the growth momentum of emerging industries was strong, and the pace of quality improvement and efficiency enhancement in traditional industries accelerated, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the industrial economy for the whole year.