China's machinery industry export face challenge

The growth rate of the export value of China's machinery industry continued to decline during the first half, but experts say it may stop falling in the second half.

In June, China's machinery export value was $29.9 billion, down 4.63 percent year-on-year.

The total export value of the machinery industry in the first half was $175.3 billion, an increase of 1.51 percent compared with the same period last year, according to figures released by the China Machinery Industry Federation on Tuesday.

The industrial export growth rate was 8.89 percentage points lower than the country's total export growth during the first six months.

During the first half of last year, China's machinery export growth rate was 9.27 percent.

"In 2012, China's machinery industry exports realized 8 percent year-on-year growth, which is unlikely to happen this year under the current situation," said Cai Weici, vice-president of the federation.

"The European and US markets have been warming up since April," Cai said. "If Chinese machinery companies can adapt their products better for the foreign market, it is possible the industry can keep stable export growth compared with last year."

He said the growth rate of the country's imports of machinery products also fell during the first half.