Harbin’s industrial output reached 152.51 billion yuan($24.6 billion), up 8.8 percent year-on-year and above Q1’s 3.3 percent growth in the first half of 2014, according to the Industry and Information Technology Commission of Harbin.

The city’s pillar industries — equipment, food, petrochemical and pharmaceutical — achieved a total industrial output value of 126.3 billion yuan, an 8.5 percent year-on-year growth, and accounting for 82.8 percent of Harbin’s total industrial output.

As the fastest-growing segment, the food industry achieved an output value of 57.28 billion yuan, an increase of 10.4 percent year-on-year. The prosperous production of Heilongjiang Tobacco Industrial Co Ltd in Q2 helped to narrow the year-on-year decline in the first half of the year, from minus 42.5 percent year-on-year in Q1 to minus 25.6 percent, pushing the developing momentum.

The equipment industry maintained steady growth as its output value totaled 36.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 6.7 percent. The growth was balanced between the increasing production of boilers, turbines and the downturn of automobiles. On the one hand, the output value of Harbin Boiler Co Ltd and Harbin Turbine Co Ltd contributed to 3.6 percent of total equipment industry output, as their production increased 34 percent and 22.3 percent, respectively, in the six months. On the other side, the cumulative output of the automotive industry declined 12.8 percent, pulling down 1.9 percent of the equipment industry.

Led by the petrochemical processing industry of PetroChina Harbin Petrochemical Co, the petrochemical industry grew modestly, with an output of 21.67 billion yuan, an increase of 6.5 percent year-on-year, reaching the highest point in the first half of this year and above Q1’s 1.5 percent.

The pharmaceutical industry made 10.83 billion yuan, a 9 percent year-on-year growth in output, with an optimistic outlook. In the past six months, output of Harbin Gloria Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd increased 69.9 percent, contributing 4 percent to the whole industry, and Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding Co Ltd kept its output increasing steadily with 1.8 percent.

Despite unfavorable trends in the world economy, the industrial development in Harbin maintained stable economic growth in the first half of 2014.