An employee works in a factory on a vehicle crankshaft production line, which produces engine parts in Binzhou in the province of Shandong on March 14, 2025.
Str | AFP | Getty pictures
China's industrial profits rose in April for a second month in a row. Official data showed on Tuesday, whereby their growth improved despite unaffordable US tariffs and persistent deflationed pressure.
The cumulative profits in large industrial companies increased by 3% last month compared to the previous year and accelerated from growth of 2.6% in March.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, industrial profits rose by 1.4%in the first four months this year.
In the past month, US President Donald Trump beat eye-raising duties from 145% to imports from China and pulled Beijing to retaliate, which effectively corresponds to a mutual trade embargo between the two largest economies in the world. However, this did not affect Chinese exports that found other markets.
At the beginning of this month, Washington and Beijing agreed to reduce most of these taxes after a meeting between the Trump administration and the Chinese leadership in Geneva, Switzerland, was reduced to a commercial weapon arrest.
The US tariffs imported from China have now dropped to 51.1%, while China's taxes for US imports are 32.6%, according to Think Tank Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Lynn Song, Chief Economist China at Ing, said that profit growth in April was stronger than expected, and found the “encouraging” sign that the processing companies recorded improved soil lines despite the “challenging external environment”.
The profits in the high-tech manufacturing industry from January to April increased by 9%compared to the previous year, with the biopharmaceutical products and the production of aircraft improvement improving a remarkable improvement.
The manufacturers of household appliances were supported by a program that subsidized consumers who act with old electronics and devices, and the manufacturers of household appliances have also improved over 15% compared to the previous year, as the data showed.
The profits in the mining sector fell by 26.8% compared to the period from January to April, while the manufacturing and supply sectors – electricity, heating, gas and water supply – rose by 8.6% or 4.4%.
The state industrial companies recorded 4.4% in January to April compared to the same period by 4.4%. Private companies and those with foreign investments recorded profits by 4.3% or 2.5%.
Weinining Yu, a statistician at the NBS, led the improved profitability to the “resilience and ability of the industrial sectors” to withstand shocks, and warned that “restrictions such as inadequate demand and falling prices” exist and “the uncertainty in the external environment” is still high.
Certain industries were also steeper, as Song emphasized, such as the automotive sector, which is trapped in a difficult “price competition” and the clothing sector, which after the introduction of new tariffs has probably changed demand to other markets.
The profits of the auto industry settled by 5.1% in the first four months this year compared to the previous year, while textile, clothing and clothing industry decreased by 12.7%.
The profit gain in large industrial companies last month to expand industrial production by 6.1% in the country. However, sales growth of retail slowed down to 5.1% compared to the previous year and underlined the persistent imbalance between deprives of care in the economy.
China's industrial profits returned to growth in the first quarter of this year and rose by 0.8% compared to the previous year and reverse the decline in decline since the third quarter of last year.
Weekly analysis and knowledge from the largest economy of Asia in their inbox
Subscribe now
Comments are closed.