China's equipment, high-tech manufacturing sectors in rapid growth in June: experts

China's equipment and high-tech manufacturing sectors, as new drivers of the country's manufacturing industry, posted accelerated growth in June, while the industry itself underwent continued improvement of the structure amid a stable economic performance, according to experts.

In June, the purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the equipment manufacturing sector reached 51 percent, marking a 0.3 percentage points increase from the previous month. Among the sub-indexes, the production index and new order index rose to 53 percent and 52 percent respectively, indicating a significant acceleration in both supply and demand within the sector.

The PMI for the high-tech manufacturing sector stood at 52.3 percent in the same month, with an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to the previous month, signifying a significant improvement in the sector's growth rate.

"The PMI for the high-tech manufacturing sector has kept expanding for eight consecutive months, while the PMI for the equipment manufacturing sector has kept going up for four consecutive months. These trends reflect the ongoing advancement of China's manufacturing industry in terms of transformation and upgrading, accompanied by the development of new high-quality productive forces," said Huo Lihui, head of the Service Survey Center's business climate survey division with the National Bureau of Statistics.

Furthermore, the average PMI for the manufacturing industry from January to June stood at 49.8 percent, indicating a 0.3 percentage points increase compared to the average of the second half of 2023.

Since the beginning of this year, despite certain fluctuations in monthly indexes, manufacturing enterprises have sustained a positive outlook for the future, driven by the continuous implementation of various policies.

In June, the Production and Operation Expectation Index reached 54.4 percent, up 0.1 percentage point compared to the previous month. Throughout this year, the index has consistently maintained a level of 54 percent or higher.

"Judged by the overall performance in the first half of the year, it can be said that production supply has been in consistent growth. Secondly, there has been a progress in improvement of the industrial structure. And thirdly, large enterprises have demonstrated stable growth, playing a constructive role in the overall trend of a stable and improving economy," said Cai Jin, vice president of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

China's equipment, high-tech manufacturing sectors in rapid growth in June: experts

Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), held talks with speaker of the Finnish parliament Jussi Halla-aho in Beijing on Monday, to discuss relations between their two countries.

Noting this year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Finland, Zhao said China stands ready to work together with Finland to deliver on the important consensus reached between the top leaders of the two countries, and promote continuous development of the China-Finland future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership.

China is further deepening reform comprehensively and expanding high-standard opening up, which will bring new opportunities for bilateral cooperation, Zhao said, noting China is willing to make joint efforts with Finland to expand win-win cooperation and cement public support for bilateral relations.

China hopes that Finland will continue to play a positive role in boosting mutual promotion and common development of China-Finland relations and of relations between China and the European Union (EU), Zhao said.

Zhao said that the NPC is ready to carry forward the traditional friendship and implement close exchange and cooperation with the Finnish parliament.

As China and Finland each have their own characteristics in national governance and development concepts, the national legislatures of the two countries can learn from each other and play their legislative and supervisory roles to create a sound and stable legal environment for practical cooperation between the two countries, he said.

For his part, Halla-aho said that Finland stays committed to the one-China policy, noting the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China.

On the basis of mutual respect and trust, Finland is willing to promote practical bilateral cooperation, safeguard free trade and tackle common challenges, said Halla-aho, noting that the Finnish parliament hopes for enhanced exchange with China's NPC, so as to play a positive role in deepening the relations between Finland and China.

China's top legislator holds talks with Finland's parliament speaker on relations