A week of policy signals and factory floor milestones is reshaping China's industrial manufacturing equipment sector. The message from Beijing is clear: the country wants its factories running on machines it makes itself.
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On September 10, the Sixth High-Quality Development Forum for Industrial Mother Machines opened in Wenling, Zhejiang. The event brought together government officials, academics, and industry leaders. The forum's theme was "building a modern industrial system by integrating innovation and industry chains". The timing is significant. It comes as the sector shows both strength and ambition.
China's industrial mother machine industry generated over 1.6 trillion yuan in revenue in 2025, ranking first globally for more than a decade. High-end five-axis machining centers have achieved what officials call "group breakthroughs." But the gap with the world's most advanced levels remains. The strategy now is not just catching up. It is finding a new path.
That new path is intelligence. Zhou Ji, director of the National Manufacturing Power Strategy Advisory Committee, told the forum that China must pursue "overtaking on a new track" rather than simply following. The new track is the "intelligent generation" of CNC machine tools. These machines will have open architectures. Users can develop their own software apps and intelligent agents. The goal is a shift from closed systems to open ecosystems.
The policy support is concrete. On the same day as the forum, three ministries issued a notice on the 2026 list of industrial mother machine enterprises eligible for VAT credit deductions. The list is not a formality. Companies that submit false information face tax recovery and a three-year ban from the program. The message is that support comes with accountability.
What does this look like on the factory floor? The most tangible example this week came from Dongfeng Mengshi. The company put China's first domestically produced heavy-load robot into operation on its production line. This is not a single equipment swap. The project started in March and targeted the core processes of final assembly and painting. The robot has a rated load of 750 kilograms and a reach of 3.6 meters. Its pose repeatability is within ±0.15 millimeters. Using 3D visual positioning, it can grip parts dynamically rather than from fixed points. The system includes domestic conveying, buffering, and control components. It is designed to match the production line's rhythm.
The painting process also got a new machine. A domestically developed polishing robot system can identify paint defects with over 95 percent accuracy and polish at a precision of 2 to 10 micrometers. In the logistics section, humanoid robots entered routine production in April. Their gripping success rate has reached 95.6 percent.
These developments are not isolated. The broader robot industry is expanding fast. In the first half of 2026, the sector's output reached 165.5 billion yuan, up 24.5 percent year-on-year. Industrial robot exports grew 18.6 percent, reaching 141 countries and regions. In 2025, China became a net exporter of industrial robots for the first time.
The application range is widening. Chinese-brand industrial robots now cover 253 subcategories of the national economy, more than half of all industry categories. They are moving into difficult, dirty, and dangerous jobs. Crawling robots clean and inspect the exteriors of petrochemical storage tanks, replacing workers who once dangled from ropes at height.
Collaborative robots and embodied intelligence are also gaining ground. Topsda showed humanoid dual-arm robots and quadruped robots at XAIR Expo 2026. Its dual-arm robot has a maximum payload of 20 kilograms and repeat positioning accuracy of ±0.03mm. Some embodied intelligence workstations have already been commercially delivered. Shanghai Mechanical and Electrical Industry said it is accelerating the industrialization of core components for humanoid robots, including dexterous hands and joint modules.
The manufacturing backdrop is supportive. China's Caixin Manufacturing PMI came in at 51.5 for August, beating expectations and marking continued expansion. The reading suggests the industrial economy is holding up.
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