China's large industrial firms posted a modest recovery in 2025, with total profits rising 0.6% year on year to 7.40 trillion yuan (US$1.06 trillion), data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Manufacturing was the main driver, with profits up 5.0% from a year earlier, while utilities covering power, heat, gas and water supply rose 9.4%. Mining sector profits fell sharply by 26.2%. In December alone, profits jumped 5.3% from a year earlier, reversing an 11-month decline.

Profits at large equipment manufacturing firms rose 7.7% in 2025, contributing 2.8 percentage points to overall industrial profit growth, the largest boost among all sectors. High-tech manufacturing profits rose 13.3%, significantly outpacing the overall industrial average and underscoring the growing role of new growth drivers.

YU Weining, chief statistician of the industrial department at the NBS, said robust gains in equipment manufacturing and high-tech industries helped end a three-year run of annual profit declines, while cautioning that external uncertainties and restructuring pressures continue to weigh on parts of the industrial sector.