The production and sales of the automotive industry are booming. Driven by a series of favorable policies, such as halving the purchase tax, car going to the countryside, and car scrapping subsidies, the auto market continued to produce and sell. In the first half of the year, industrial enterprises above designated size produced 6.23 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%. According to the statistics of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the country sold 6.1 million vehicles, an increase of 17.7%. Automobile production and sales have exceeded 1 million vehicles for four consecutive months, including 1.2 million vehicles in June (according to the statistics of the Automobile Association, 1.16 million vehicles were sold in the month). Basic passenger cars (sedans) have become the main growth point for the entire automotive market. In the first half of the year, the output of basic passenger vehicles was 3.23 million and the sales volume was 3.24 million, an increase of 16.3% and 21.6% respectively. The economic benefits have improved. From January to May, the accumulated profits of enterprises above designated size in the national automobile industry totaled 56.6 billion yuan, down 11.1% year-on-year, and the decline was 40.5 percentage points lower than that in January-February.
The growth rate of major construction machinery is accelerating. With the large-scale construction of various domestic engineering projects, the domestic demand for construction machinery has increased significantly and production has accelerated. In the first half of the year, the output of lifting machinery, compaction machinery, conveying machinery and concrete machinery increased by 9.1%, 5.8%, 19.7% and 28.8% respectively, which was 2.6-8.5 percentage points higher than the first quarter.
The output of wind power equipment and railway passenger cars has doubled. The output of power generation equipment decreased by 15.4% year-on-year, a decrease of 10.1 percentage points over the first quarter; wind power equipment increased by 5.46 times year-on-year, and the growth rate in June was still 4.6 times. In the first half of the year, the output of railway passenger cars increased by 1.83 times year-on-year. The output of large and medium-sized tractors, harvesting machinery and on-the-spot operation machinery increased by 25.1%-41.8%.
Shipbuilding completions have continued to grow rapidly, and new orders for ships have undergone positive changes. According to the statistics of China Shipbuilding Industry Association, in the first half of the year, the national shipbuilding completion volume was 15.87 million DWT, a year-on-year increase of 60%, of which the shipbuilding completion volume in June was 3.71 million DWT. The shipbuilding industry completed a total output value of 256.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.7%. In the first half of the year, the new orders for ships were 5.88 million DWT, down 81% year-on-year; 69 orders were withdrawn and 3.54 million DWT, accounting for 1.8% of the total number of hand-held orders. New ship orders showed positive changes in June. In the month, the national shipbuilding enterprises received orders for new ships of 4.7 million deadweight tons, five times the amount received in the first five months. However, due to the downturn in the international shipping market, by the end of June, the national shipbuilding enterprises had shipped orders of 19,500,000 DWT.
From January to May, the machinery industry realized a profit of 197.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.3%, a decrease of 18 percentage points from January to February.
The second half of the industrial operation in the first half of 2009: equipment industry
With the gradual implementation of various policies to expand domestic demand in the country, in the first half of the year, the added value of the equipment industry (including automobiles and ships) increased by 9.2% year-on-year, of which 13% in June. Among the more than 80 kinds of mechanical products that were mainly monitored, the growth rate of production in the first half of the year was 2/3 faster than that in the first quarter.