In 2025, industrial profits achieved positive growth throughout the year, reversing the downward trend that had lasted for three consecutive years. Among them, new growth drivers such as equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing played a significant supporting role, the profit structure of traditional industries continued to optimize, and the quality and efficiency of industrial economic development continued to improve.
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on January 27 showed that in 2025, the total profits of industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide reached 7.3982 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.6% over the previous year. Among them, in December last year, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size in that month turned from a 13.1% decline in November last year to a 5.3% increase, rebounding by 18.4 percentage points.
As the government accelerates the campaign to clear arrears, enterprises' capital recovery has improved marginally. At the end of December 2025, the year-on-year growth rate of accounts receivable of industrial enterprises above designated size slowed down by 0.8 percentage points to 4.7%; the average collection period of accounts receivable dropped to 67.9 days.
Against the backdrop of industrial enterprises' profit growth ending with an increase in 2025, this year is expected to continue the recovery trend. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has made intensive arrangements to stabilize the growth of the industrial economy, listing "making every effort to consolidate the steady and positive momentum of the industrial economy" as the top priority for 2026. Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng stated that this year, efforts will be made to implement the action to revitalize traditional industries and the action to develop and expand emerging industries to create new driving forces, and comprehensively enhance the technological innovation capabilities of industries. We will consolidate and expand the results of the comprehensive rectification of "involutionary" competition, and further enhance the motivation and vitality of business entities.
Industrial profits have improved significantly
In 2025, the total profits of industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide increased by 0.6% year-on-year, up 0.5 percentage points from the January-November period, maintaining positive improvement for five consecutive months. Driven by factors such as improved prices and stronger profitability, the profit growth rate of industrial enterprises has rebounded marginally.
Wen Bin, Chief Economist of China Minsheng Bank, stated that the industrial profits throughout the year showed a trend of "low in the first half and high in the second half, with fluctuations". In the second half of 2025, as the effects of steady growth policies gradually emerged and the "anti-involution" policies continued to be strengthened, corporate inventories and capacity utilization improved, profits in some industries recovered, and the profit growth rate stopped falling and rebounded. However, in the fourth quarter, affected by the high base effect and profit fluctuations, the growth rate declined somewhat. Overall, the annual profit growth rate fluctuated significantly, but the medium and long-term positive trend remained unchanged, and the foundation for corporate profits was still steadily recovering.
In December 2025, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 5.3% in that month. CICC Macro pointed out that when breaking down the profits of industrial enterprises, in December, revenue, costs, expenses and other profits and losses contributed -3.2, -0.2, -8.8 and 17.4 percentage points respectively. Therefore, other profits and losses were the main factor for the recovery of profits. With the rise in the stock market, investment income increased, and the seasonal inclusion in December may be a major reason. Looking at historical data, the investment income of industrial enterprises will be included centrally in June and December, showing a significant seasonal increase.
In 2025, the cost per 100 yuan of operating income for industrial enterprises above designated size was 85.31 yuan, an increase of 0.16 yuan year-on-year; at the same time, the expense per 100 yuan of operating income was 8.62 yuan, a decrease of 0.02 yuan year-on-year. Zhang Di, chief macro analyst at China Galaxy Securities, said that against the background of "anti-involution" and rising prices of some bulk commodities, production costs continued to rise, while the decline in the expense ratio reflected that enterprises were still hedging against the rise in costs by reducing non-productive expenditures.
As of the end of December 2025, the average collection period of accounts receivable for industrial enterprises was 67.9 days, down 2.5 days from the previous value, while the average decline in the same period in history was 1.8 days. By enterprise type, the average collection periods of accounts receivable for state-owned, joint-stock, foreign-funded, and private enterprises were 52.2 days, 65.6 days, 78.3 days, and 70.6 days respectively, down 3.3 days, 2.5 days, 2.1 days, and 1.5 days from the previous values respectively.
Wen Bin stated that the acceleration of the accounts receivable collection period is mainly due to the定向 use of fiscal funds for arrears clearance, the centralized cleanup of arrears owed by the government and state-owned enterprises, as well as the simultaneous strengthening of arrears clearance responsibilities and credit discipline constraints, which have promoted the accelerated settlement of existing arrears.
Improvement in the structure of industrial profits
By type of enterprise, in 2025, among industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide, the profit growth rates of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as foreign-invested enterprises and those invested by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have turned from negative to positive. Their annual profits increased by 1.4% and 4.2% respectively compared with the previous year, while in 2024, they decreased by 1.9% and 1.7% respectively. The profits of joint-stock enterprises and state-controlled enterprises improved significantly, with their annual profit declines narrowing by 3.5 and 0.7 percentage points respectively compared with the previous year.
Looking at the three major categories, in 2025, the profits of the manufacturing industry increased by 5.0%, with the growth rate rebounding significantly by 8.9 percentage points compared with 2024; the profits of the electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply industry increased by 9.4%; and the profits of the mining industry decreased by 26.2%.
Structurally, equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing were the main pillars of profit growth throughout the year. In 2025, the profits of large-scale equipment manufacturing enterprises increased by 7.7% compared with the previous year, driving the profit growth of all large-scale industrial enterprises by 2.8 percentage points, making it the sector with the strongest pulling effect on the profit growth of large-scale industrial enterprises. The profits of large-scale equipment manufacturing enterprises accounted for 39.8% of the total profits of industrial enterprises, an increase of 2.6 percentage points over the previous year, indicating that the profit structure of industrial enterprises was further optimized.
In 2025, the profits of high-tech manufacturing enterprises above designated size increased by 13.3% compared with the previous year, 12.7 percentage points higher than that of all industrial enterprises above designated size. Smart electronic products created new consumption trends, driving the profit of the intelligent consumer equipment manufacturing industry to grow by 48.0% compared with the previous year. Among them, the profits of the intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturing and intelligent on-board equipment manufacturing industries increased by 102.0% and 88.8% respectively. The industrial chain in the semiconductor field achieved an "accelerated development". The profits of the related integrated circuit manufacturing, semiconductor device-specific equipment manufacturing, electronic components and electromechanical component equipment manufacturing, and sensitive components and sensor manufacturing industries increased by 172.6%, 128.0%, 49.1% and 33.3% respectively.
The effectiveness of developing new productive forces in traditional industries continues to show, with profits significantly higher than the industry average. In the chemical industry, the profits of biochemical pesticides and microbial pesticide manufacturing, and information chemicals manufacturing for cultural use increased by 20.7% and 15.2% respectively compared with the previous year, which were 28.0 and 22.5 percentage points higher than the average level of the chemical industry. In the chemical fiber and electric power industries, the profits of bio-based chemical fiber manufacturing and biomass power generation industries increased by 88.6% and 47.9% respectively, which were 93.1 and 34.0 percentage points higher than the average level of their respective major industries.
Looking ahead to 2026, Wen Bin stated that the profits of industrial enterprises are expected to continue their recovery trend. On the demand side, domestic consumption is growing steadily, investment is gradually stopping its decline and stabilizing, exports are expected to see stable volume and improved quality, and overall demand is steady and positive. On the price front, under the influence of the "anti-involution" policy, the decline in prices has narrowed, the cost pressure on enterprises has been somewhat alleviated, which further supports the improvement of profits. In addition, with the accelerated advancement of new industrialization and the construction of a modern industrial system, the effective investment in manufacturing, equipment renewal and technological transformation demand will continue to be released. The operating environment and profit margins of industrial enterprises are expected to gradually improve, driving the profits of industrial enterprises to transition from a phased recovery to a more resilient moderate growth.
Zhang Di also believes that from a policy perspective, the "anti-involution" measures have improved the competitive environment for enterprises and alleviated the squeeze on profits caused by disorderly competition; from the demand perspective, against the background of the phased upward trend in commodity prices and the maintenance of a relatively high prosperity in exports, the demand and price benchmarks of related industries have been supported, which has provided a certain boost to industrial profits.
Yu Weining, chief statistician of the Industry Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, stated that, on the whole, profits of industrial enterprises above designated size have achieved growth, the supporting role of new industrial drivers is obvious, and industrial economic development is moving towards newness and improvement. However, it should also be noted that the impact of changes in the external environment is gradually deepening, there are pains in industrial transformation and upgrading, and some enterprises still face certain difficulties in production and operation. In the next stage, we should continue to promote the in-depth integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, continuously optimize the industrial structure, accelerate the cultivation of new productive forces, and promote the continuous improvement of the efficiency of industrial enterprises.
This year's approach to stabilizing industrial growth is clear
Industry is the "ballast stone" for the stable operation of the economy. In 2025, industrial production showed the characteristics of relatively rapid growth, optimized structure, and new momentum, playing an important supporting role in the stable operation of the economy.
In 2025, China's industrial added value reached 41.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.8% over the previous year, with the growth rate accelerating by 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous year. Its contribution rate to economic growth reached 35%, an increase of 1.8 percentage points from the previous year. As the mainstay of the industrial economy, the output scale of the manufacturing industry continued to expand. In 2025, the added value of the manufacturing industry was 34.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.1% over the previous year, accounting for about 25% of GDP.
In 2025, industrial production developed steadily, the industrial structure moved toward newness and optimization, and the advantages of a complete industrial system became more prominent. At the same time, it is also noted that the impact of changes in the external environment is gradually deepening, there are pains in domestic transformation and upgrading, and some enterprises still face difficulties in production and operation. Li Lecheng said that the advantageous conditions of China's industrial economic development in 2026, such as strong resilience, great potential and sufficient vitality, have not changed. Of course, there are also some risks and challenges. As long as we strengthen confidence, rise to the difficulties, adopt innovative ideas and reform methods, and make full use of the advantageous conditions, we can completely promote the steady and long-term development of the industrial economy.
At the recently held National Conference on Industry and Information Technology Work, "making every effort to consolidate the steady and positive momentum of the industrial economy" was listed as the top priority for 2026. Li Lecheng stated that this year, efforts will be focused on four aspects of work, including stabilizing the growth of key industries and key regions, tapping potential to expand effective demand, promoting value creation and winning through quality, and further enhancing the motivation and vitality of business entities.
The industrial added value of key industries and regions accounts for 80% of the total industrial output. Li Lecheng stated that they will give full play to the advantages of key industries, such as large scale, long industrial chains, and strong driving force, thoroughly implement the new round of work plans for stabilizing growth in ten key industries including steel, non-ferrous metals, and petrochemicals, continue to support major industrial provinces to play a leading role, and strengthen policy support and factor guarantees.
