Profit growth outpacing revenue growth is a rare sight in the sewing machinery industry in recent years. In the first half of 2026, 312 above-scale enterprises reported RMB 18.3 billion in revenue, up 12.18% year-on-year, and RMB 985 million in total profit, up 17.35%. The nearly five-percentage-point gap suggests the industry is shaking off its low-price, volume-driven habit, with product mix upgrades beginning to show up in the financials.
Production: Automation Equipment as the Main Growth Engine
The industrial value-added growth rate of above-scale enterprises reached 11.5%, well above the national industrial average. Behind this figure lies a dramatic shift in equipment structure. Total sewing equipment output reached 3.41 million units in H1, up 8.97%, including 2.51 million industrial sewing machines, up 10.17%. The real standout is automation equipment output, which surged 36.41% year-on-year, several times the growth rate of conventional models.
Why has automation equipment gained such momentum? The procurement logic of downstream footwear and apparel factories has changed. In the past, buyers looked at single-machine capacity; now they assess whether an entire production line can support small-batch, rapid-response orders. Flexible orders starting at a few hundred meters continue to rise, factories avoid blind stockpiling, and production scheduling adjusts to real-time end-market feedback. This places hard demands on changeover speed and digital coordination.
China Light Textile City, the country's core fabric distribution hub, mirrors this shift. Online sampling and rapid offline prototyping have become widespread, with fabric merchants and garment processors scheduling production on demand. Equipment renewal demand is tilting toward higher value-added solutions. For machine builders, selling standalone units is increasingly difficult; only integrated digital plant solutions command pricing power.
Domestic Sales and Exports: Narrowing Decline but Widening Divergence
On the domestic front, total retail sales of consumer goods grew 1.3% year-on-year in H1, while apparel, footwear, and textiles retail sales rose 6.7%. End demand is not weak. However, insufficient international orders and rising overall costs have kept downstream footwear and apparel enterprises cautious about equipment purchases. According to association estimates, domestic sewing equipment sales fell about 15% year-on-year, but the decline narrowed by 10 to 15 percentage points from the previous year.
What does the narrowing decline signal? It suggests the worst may be passing. A group of small and medium-sized apparel factories focused on flexible production are still moderately upgrading automated sewing and embroidery equipment to accommodate fragmented orders. High value-added orders are partially returning to China, and the domestic market is shifting from volume expansion to quality improvement. For equipment makers, capturing renewal demand from these flexible factories is more realistic than waiting for large-scale capacity expansion orders.
Exports present a sharply uneven picture. H1 sewing machinery exports reached USD 2.053 billion, up 2.69%, still expanding but at a slower pace. Category divergence is significant: industrial sewing machine exports totaled 2.78 million units, up 6.25%, but export value fell 2.55% to USD 857 million—volume up, price down, indicating unit price pressure. Embroidery machine exports reached USD 561 million, up 19.19%, the brightest category.
Regional divergence is equally pronounced. Exports to South Asia, Latin America, and Central Asia grew significantly, with India, Brazil, Indonesia, and the United States posting faster growth. ASEAN, West Asia, and East Asia declined, while Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh saw negative growth. Global textile and apparel production is accelerating its shift to South Asia, Latin America, and Central Asia, directly causing uneven export markets. For exporters, market structure matters more than total volume.