High-tech manufacturing leads China’s August industrial growth

China’s high-tech manufacturing output rose 16.7 percent year on year in August, outpacing overall industrial growth, according to official figures released on September 15.

Equipment manufacturing expanded 12.1 percent, while overall value-added industrial output grew 5.2 percent. Product-level results showed particularly strong increases in lithium-ion batteries, industrial robots and 3D-printing equipment.

Battery output rose 57.2 percent, industrial robots 34.6 percent and 3D-printing equipment 29.9 percent. The figures offer a snapshot of demand across several advanced manufacturing sectors. They measure output growth over the same month a year earlier, rather than the profitability or commercial success of individual manufacturers.