China’s value-added industrial output expanded 6.1% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, 1.1 percentage points faster than the previous quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). On a monthly basis, industrial output grew 0.28 percent in March.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises, each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about US$2.91 million).

A breakdown of the data showed that the manufacturing sector’s grew by 6.4%. Value-added output for high-tech manufacturing surged 12.5% during the first quarter. This sector’s share of total industrial value-added reached 16.9%, driving overall growth by two percentage points.

By product, in March, the production of 329 out of 626 kinds of products increased year-on-year. Among them, fabric output increased by 1.5% year-on-year in March to 2.6 billion meters and grew by 4.6% year-on-year from January to March to 7 billion meters. And the output of chemical fibers grew by 2.2% year-on-year in March to 7.85 million tons and increased 5.5% year-on-year to 21.77 million in the first quarter of 2026.

Source: CHINA TEXTILE LEADER Express