An employee works at Xuzhou XCMG Port Machinery plant in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province. [Photo/China Daily]

China's machinery sector recorded a year-on-year added value growth of 9.7 percent in the first half of the year, showing the resilience of the nation's machinery industry, with equipment and automotive manufacturing driving the growth, a new report said.

In the first six months, the growth rate of the machinery sector, an important economic indicator, was higher than the growth rates of the industrial and manufacturing sectors by 5.9 percentage points and 5.5 percentage points, respectively, Beijing-based China Machinery Industry Federation (CMIF) said in a news conference on Tuesday.

From January to June, the sales of new energy vehicles were a highlight. During the period, China produced and sold 3.79 million and 3.75 million units of NEVs, respectively, and the year-on-year growth rate for both exceeded 40 percent. Sales of NEVs reached 28.3 percent of the total sales of new cars, according to CMIF.

"Chinese NEV makers have been innovative and they have seen a rapid improvement in product competitiveness in the past few years. Smart could be a label of NEVs produced in China," said Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In the first half of the year, China's machinery industry achieved a total import and export value of $536.1 billion, up 5.1 percent year-on-year. Among which, the importing value reached $143.5 billion, down 14 percent on a yearly basis, and the exporting value achieved $392.6 billion, up 14.4 percent year-on-year, according to CMIF.

Looking ahead, the economic operation of the machinery sector in China is expected to maintain steady growth. Some key indicators such as the growth rate of the added value and the operating income of the sector are expected to reach about 5 percent. Still, the operating pressure in the machinery industry continues to exist, the federation said.