A staff member works at a factory of Chinese automaker Chery Holding Group Co., Ltd. in Erdos, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Feb. 9, 2023. (Xinhua/Bei He)

China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 3.8 percent year on year in the first half of this year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

In June alone, industrial output rose 4.4 percent year on year, faster than the 3.5 percent growth registered in May, according to the NBS.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of large enterprises each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars).

China's industrial production has seen a steady recovery in the first half of the year, with the equipment manufacturing sector posting a relatively fast expansion, Fu Linghui, a spokesperson with the NBS, told a press conference.

Among the three major sectors, namely, manufacturing, mining and the production and supply of utilities, the manufacturing sector's output showed the fastest growth, climbing 4.2 percent year on year in the first half of the year, NBS data showed.

Output of the equipment manufacturing sector expanded 6.5 percent from a year ago during the January-June period, 2.7 percentage points higher than the overall industrial output growth.

In a breakdown by ownership, the output of state-controlled enterprises and joint-equity firms both went up 4.4 percent year on year in the first six months, while that of the private sector grew 1.9 percent.

The electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing sector stood out with year-on-year output growth of 15.7 percent, followed by the automobile manufacturing sector, which expanded 13.1 percent from a year ago, according to the NBS.

In terms of products, the production of solar cells, new-energy automobiles and industrial control computers and systems surged by 54.5 percent, 35 percent and 34.1 percent year on year, respectively.

Monday's data also showed that China's gross domestic product expanded 5.5 percent year on year in the first half of 2023, with the GDP growth standing at 6.3 percent in the second quarter.