China Daily, CNBC, and FT all have stories reporting the same thing today: China’s industry has turned in very high profitability in the first quarter of 2026, despite global energy prices through the roof and the White House energetically looking for any sanctions it can place on China.
Industrial profitability for the quarter was 15.5% on average for all medium-sized and larger firms, and in the range of 15%-plus in each month of that quarter. Yu Weining, who presented the results for the National Bureau of Statistics, said that high-technology manufacturing and industrial equipment sectors led the advance with 21% profitability overall.
Mr. Yu backed that up with the amiable, but somewhat less-than-precise statement: “In the first quarter, amid multiple economic headwinds, policymakers stepped up macroeconomic regulation and front-loaded more proactive and effective macroeconomic policies, helping the industrial economy recover steadily.”
China has reportedly benefited, relative to many other major nations, from very large-scale energy storage capacities, electric equipment capacities, and broad-scale imports recovery. China’s industrial growth and profitability had been below normal for the past three years. It now appears to have surmounted Biden and Trump attempts at strangling key sectors like semiconductors.
Profits in equipment manufacturing industries surged 21% year-on-year during the first three months of the year. Profits in high-tech manufacturing jumped 47.4%. The raw materials manufacturing sector posted double-digit profit growth, with profits jumping 77.9% year-on-year in the first quarter. But lest one think that “raw materials” meant oil, coal, and gas and were therefore just energy companies profiting from crude oil prices, the National Bureau Statistics reported that profits recorded by industrial firms that offer supplies of electricity, heat, gas, and water fell 3.2%
Profits recorded by mining firms increased 16.2% year-on-year, and those strictly of manufacturing companies rose 19.1% percent.
