Growing electronics segment eyes high-end products

A staff member makes electronic products with advanced equipment at a technology company in Huaying, Sichuan province, on May 11, 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

Total output by China's electronic information sector－producing products ranging from smartphones, laptops to routers and LCD panels－increased by 10 percent year-on-year in 2016.

That was about 4 percentage points higher than the rate of overall industrial output, the China Information Technology Industry Federation said in a statement.

The performance compared with China's industrial output that increased by 6 percent last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Industrial output, officially called industrial value-added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan ($2.9 million).

The China Information Technology Industry Federation said policies such as Made in China 2025, the Belt and Road Initiative and Internet Plus, injected vigor into the sector.

The federation showed the fixed assets investment of projects whose value is above 5 million yuan in the electronic information industry was 1.05 trillion yuan, up by 15.8 percent compared with the previous year.

The latest figures also showed that revenue from electronics manufacturing and software industry was more than 17 trillion yuan in 2016, up 10.8 percent year-on-year.

The revenue of electronics manufacturing industry reached 12.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.3 percent year-on-year, while the revenue from software industry increased by 14.9 percent year-on-year to 4.9 trillion yuan last year, the federation added.

China's electronics information industry should make a breakthrough in the core technology sector, said Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of industry and information technology.

He pointed out China's electronics information industry was in a crucial period of transformation and upgrading. However, he said, there was still a shortage of core technologies.

"The electronics information industry should have a deep integration with real economy, applying internet technology into industry and promoting the digitalized, networked and intelligent transformation of manufacturing industry in the future," he said.

Chen advocated making long-term investment to chips, components, materials and software, and putting more effort behind artificial intelligence, internet of vehicles and quantum computing.

The latest figures showed that total profit of the electronics information manufacturing industry was 646.4 billion yuan in 2016, up 16.1 percent compared with the previous year.

Zhou Zixue, deputy head of the China Information Technology Industry Federation, said the penetration rate of smartphones and smart televisions exceeded 80 percent of the population, while smart watches, smart glasses, virtual reality equipment, smart homes and drones were developing rapidly.

"The whole industry maintained stable and relatively fast growth last year," said Zhou.

"However, we are still facing some difficulties, such as a lack of core and high-end products, and the overall capacity still needs to be improved," he added.

There were both opportunities and challenges for the information industry, and the whole industry would maintain a moderate growth. "We expect a 10 percent increase this year," Zhou added.

The federation also said total imports and exports of electronics products reached 1.22 trillion yuan in 2016, down 6.4 percent year-on-year. However, the average price of exported products－which included smartphones, digital cameras, routers, LCD displays and automatic teller machines－increased compared with the previous year.

Some leading tech companies witnessed growth amid the sluggish economic situation, however.

"The income of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd surpassed 500 billion yuan last year, over 60 percent of which comes from overseas market," Zhou said.

"The LCD panel shipments of BOE Technology Group Co Ltd ranked second globally. Furthermore, Haier Group acquired GE Appliances, making a leap to fifth place in the world market," Zhou said.