Profits at China's major industrial firms rose 15.7% year on year in the first eight months of 2026 to 5.27 trillion yuan, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, September 28, 2026.
Mining and manufacturing lead growth
The data cover major industrial firms with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan, or about $2.97 million.
Mining-sector profits rose 35.1% to 766.15 billion yuan, while manufacturing profits increased 17.4% to nearly 3.97 trillion yuan.
By contrast, profits in electricity, heating, gas and water production and supply fell 12% to 536.3 billion yuan.
Electronics accounts for 62% of profit growth
Yue Weining, a statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics, attributed the relatively rapid growth in profits to continued industrial output growth and a broadening increase in industrial product prices.
Yue said the electronics sector had become a key growth driver after its profits surged 110% year on year, accounting for 62% of total profit growth among industrial firms.
He added that the rapid expansion of new-technology applications, led by artificial intelligence, had boosted demand in related fields, contributing to the swift growth in electronics-industry profits.
Chip demand supports high-tech industries
Rising demand for electronic chips, driven by emerging applications such as new-energy vehicles, the Internet of Things and computing centers, lifted profits in electronic optical equipment manufacturing and discrete semiconductor-device manufacturing by 72% and 51.8%, respectively.
Profits at major industrial firms in high-tech manufacturing rose 54.7% year on year from January to August, exceeding the overall growth rate by 39 percentage points.
In August alone, profits at China's major industrial firms rose 4.2% year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
