China's equipment manufacturing industry posted an 8.6 percent growth in output in the first five months, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The output of concrete machines reported the biggest rise in the Jan.-May period at 25 percent, and that of conveyers went up 21 percent.

The growth of equipment used in grain processing, feedstuff and cement production accelerated, up 4.4 percent, 14.8 percent and 14.7 percent respectively, while output of railway passenger cars doubled from a year earlier.

Digital-controlled machine tool sector kept sliding. For instance, output of metal-cutting machine tools declined 21.1 percent.

The output of power generators dropped 23.2 percent year on year, 2.3 percent lower than that of the first quarter. But output of wind-power generators soared more than five times from a year ago.

The ministry said the equipment manufacturing industry's growth was 11.7 percent in May, compared with 9.7 percent in April and 10.1 percent in March.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2009)