The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has reported robust growth in the equipment manufacturing sector for the first half of the year.

At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Wang Weiming, the Chief Engineer of the Ministry, detailed the progress in industrial and information technology development.

The added value of the equipment industry increased by 6.4% year-on-year in the first six months, accounting for 20% of the total value-added of major industrial enterprises and contributing 23.5% to their growth, providing strong support for the stable operation of the industrial economy.

New quality productive forces are being rapidly nurtured, with the output of industrial robots and service robots rising by 28% and 11.9% respectively compared to the same period last year, reflecting the sustained release of demand for automation and intelligent manufacturing.

Regarding the integration of artificial intelligence with manufacturing, the application penetration rate of AI technologies among major manufacturing enterprises has exceeded 30%. The global cumulative downloads of open-source large AI models have surpassed 10 billion, further solidifying the trend towards intelligent transformation.