This year, the growth rate of the machinery industry was slightly higher than that of the national industry and manufacturing sector as a whole

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The main challenges include: first, there is still significant downward pressure on economic activity; the weak domestic demand for mechanical products is unlikely to improve significantly in the short term. Industries that are primarily served by the machinery industry, such as steel, coal, power, petroleum, and chemicals, are all in a phase of deep structural adjustment aimed at reducing overcapacity, which means that demand in these sectors is unlikely to recover in the near future. 　　Secondly, after years of rapid development, the social stock of various mechanical products has reached a considerable scale; this has generated demand for maintenance services while simultaneously reducing the need to purchase new equipment. 　　Third, the export situation in this industry faces significant pressures: fierce market competition, increasing trade frictions, falling prices, and declining profits, all of which make it difficult to see a recovery in exports. 　　In summary, it is expected that the economic performance of the machinery industry in 2016 will continue to show a trend of stabilization and improvement since the fourth quarter of the previous year. In the second half of the year, while overall stability prevails, there will be slight fluctuations in the fourth quarter. It is expected that the growth rate of the added value of the machinery industry for the whole year will be slightly higher than that of the national industrial and manufacturing sectors. Main business revenues and profits will continue to grow in tandem, with export growth rates aiming to be no lower than the decline seen last year. 　　Regarding the factors that caused fluctuations in the fourth quarter, Chen Bin said that the steady growth of the machinery industry in the first half of the year was greatly facilitated by the automobile industry, and this was closely related to the policies introduced in October last year. Starting from October this year, an increase in the base figure could affect the trends in the automotive industry; given that the automotive industry accounts for around 34% of the machinery industry, fluctuations in the automotive sector may have an impact on the trends in the machinery industry as well.