A technician works on the production line of a Volkswagen plant in Shanghai. (Photo: Xinhua)

BEIJING - Revenue growth of China's machinery industry weakened last year, weighed down by the sluggish auto sector, according to a report from the China Machinery Industry Federation.

Revenues totaled 21.76 trillion yuan ($3.11 trillion) in 2019, up 2.46 percent year-on-year. The growth rate was 1.39 percentage points lower than the national industrial average.

The machinery industry's value-added output, an important economic indicator, stood at 5.1 percent, compared with the national average of 5.7 percent.

The machinery industry became much divided last year, as the auto sector was a significant underperformer, but robot and intelligent manufacturing posted brisk growth.

Profits of China's auto sector fell 15.3 percent year-on-year last year amid softening domestic demand, with revenues retreating 1.66 percent. Bucking the trend, engineering machinery, robots and intelligent manufacturing reported double-digit growth in revenues.