A-shares companies kick off first-quarter earnings reports, with three major industries leading the positive outlook trend

On the evening of April 7, as GigaDevice Information and Brilliant Therapeutics released their Q1 reports, the official curtain call for A-share companies’ 2026 Q1 reporting season was set in motion.

As of 19:00 on April 7, 48 listed companies in the A-share market had already issued profit forecasts for the first quarter of 2026. The data show that 29 companies saw year-on-year growth in profits, 3 turned losses into profits, 7 had slight increases, and the “positive outlook” rate reached 81.25%. Among them, 24 companies are expected to see year-on-year increases in net profit attributable to shareholders exceeding 100%, and even 4 companies are forecast to grow by more than 20 times year on year.

Notably, the companies with profit “surges” are mainly concentrated in industries such as semiconductors, nonferrous metals, and basic chemicals, continuing the high level of market enthusiasm since 2025. A reporter from the Shanghai Securities News reviewed the reasons behind the high growth in performance and found that the core drivers mainly come from two factors: the AI development wave and rising product prices.

AI sparks “hard-tech” performance

In Q1 2026, China-made compute power chips, PCBs (printed circuit boards), and other segments along the semiconductor industry chain continued the high level of market activity seen in 2025, becoming a relatively certain area for performance growth.

As a leading player in domestically made high-end chips, GigaDevice Information reported Q1 revenue of RMB 4.034 billion, up 68.06% year on year; net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 687 million, up 35.82% year on year. The company said that with increased demand in the artificial intelligence industry, demand for domestically made high-end chips continues to rise.

Qiangyi Stock expects net profit attributable to shareholders in Q1 to be RMB 106 million to RMB 121 million, representing growth of 654.79% to 761.60% year on year. The company said that benefiting from the rapid growth in global demand for AI compute power chip testing, together with the semiconductor industry as a whole entering an upturn cycle, downstream customers’ testing demand is strong; orders for the company’s mature MEMS probe card products continue to expand.

Benefiting from strong demand in downstream application areas such as AI, new energy vehicles, energy storage, and industrial control, Yangjie Technology expects net profit attributable to shareholders in Q1 to increase 20% to 40% year on year. Dinglong Shares, meanwhile, expects net profit attributable to shareholders to rise 70.22% to 84.41% year on year, driven by steady growth in its semiconductor materials business.

Dongshan Precision expects net profit attributable to shareholders in Q1 to be RMB 1.0 billion to RMB 1.15 billion, up 119.36% to 152.27% year on year. “Strong AI compute demand is driving faster investment in AI infrastructure. Our optical module products are continuously being introduced to new major customers, becoming a new core profit growth driver,” Dongshan Precision said.

An investment research report from Aijian Securities stated that driven jointly by the continued explosion of AI compute demand, steady improvement in the penetration rate of automotive electronics, and the cyclical recovery of consumer electronics, the global semiconductor industry in 2026 is expected to continue the upturn cycle that began in 2024.

Nonferrous metals drive “volume and price rising together”

Benefiting from simultaneous improvement in product volume and pricing, the nonferrous metals sector showed a clearly positive trend in profit forecasts for Q1.

Shenhuo Co., Ltd. expects net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 2.25 billion in Q1, up 217.68% year on year. The company said that due to factors including a year-on-year increase in the selling price of electrolytic aluminum products and a year-on-year decrease in the price of major raw material alumina, the company’s electrolytic aluminum segment profitability has improved significantly. Shengtun Mining, meanwhile, benefits from increased copper output; with the copper price staying at a historically high level and rising year on year, it expects net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 950 million to RMB 1.15 billion in Q1, up 226.27% to 294.95% year on year.

Enterprises such as Shanjin International, Tianshan Aluminum, and Xinke Materials all expect a significant year-on-year jump in their Q1 report performance.

Some nonferrous metal prices have risen sharply as well, which directly boosted the business outlook of downstream sub-industries; the CNC tooling industry is a typical example.

In Q1 2026, three companies—Okoer, Huarui Precision, and Xinrui Shares—delivered impressive results. Among them, Okoer expects net profit attributable to shareholders to grow as much as 2,248.89% to 2,770.86% year on year; the increases for Huarui Precision and Xinrui Shares are also each above 4 times. All three companies said that the large growth in performance mainly results from the continuous rise in the price of tungsten carbide, their core raw material.

Tungsten carbide is the main raw material for hard-metal cutting tools, accounting for more than 50% of costs. Since Q2 2025, the average price of tungsten carbide has risen from RMB 340 per kilogram to RMB 1,035 per kilogram by year-end; it increased by more than 200% within two quarters. Entering Q1 2026, prices continued to climb to RMB 2,290 per kilogram, achieving another doubling.

According to Huarui Precision, although tool expenses account for only 1% to 4% of mechanical processing manufacturing costs, as a core component used to execute metal cutting on machine tools, it directly determines the precision of machined parts, surface roughness, and the acceptance rate. Therefore, mechanical processing companies generally will not easily switch tool suppliers, which creates a certain level of stickiness. As a result, for leading companies, price increases can be transmitted relatively smoothly.

“CNC insert sales models are generally order-based. It takes some time from placing orders to shipping, so the industry’s collective price increases in March were not fully reflected in Q1 performance; the shipment prices of tool products still have room to rise,” a research report from GF Securities believes.

Chemical sector performance concentrated in realizations

Driven by factors such as the situation in the Middle East, the global chemical industry chain structure continues to be reshaped. Starting from April 1, chemical giants both at home and abroad—including Investa? (as in the company name), Wanhua Chemical, Covestro, and Covestro’s?— promptly raised product prices. The adjustments cover multiple categories including nylon, polyurethane, titanium dioxide, organic silicon, and semiconductor materials, and the A-share chemical sector’s first-quarter profitability is gradually being realized as well.

Dongyue Silicon Material expects net profit attributable to shareholders in Q1 to be RMB 183 million to RMB 203 million, up 397.02% to 451.34% year on year. The company said that benefiting from improvements in market conditions and supply-demand dynamics within the industry, the prices of major organic silicon products have risen and returned to a reasonable range, significantly lifting the company’s gross margin on products. With the market price of titanium dioxide recovering, Kuncai Technology expects net profit attributable to shareholders in Q1 to grow 151.56% to 235.41% year on year.

In fact, after completing three rounds of price increases in March, the momentum of price hikes in the titanium dioxide industry is still continuing. On April 1, Citic Titanium announced an increase in the price of chloride-process titanium dioxide: in China, it increased by RMB 1,000 per ton, and overseas by USD 200 per ton. Subsequently, companies including Lonray Group, Jinpu Titanium Industry, and Shandong Dongjia have issued their next round of April pricing adjustment letters one after another.

Zhaoshi? (as in the fund manager name) chemical ETF fund manager Zhang Chaoliang believes that in 2026 the chemical industry may be in the early stage of a new cycle starting up. Over the next 1 to 2 years, the industry is expected to fluctuate upward. As the periodic repair of industry fundamentals takes effect, improvements in profitability will bring a twofold boost in cash flow and dividend capacity. Some chemical sector leaders are expected to become high-quality dividend assets with long-term allocation value.

In addition, some leaders in sub-sectors achieve high performance growth by leveraging their own competitive advantages. Wanfangde expects net profit attributable to shareholders in Q1 to be RMB 165 million, up 985.4% year on year. The company said that the large growth in performance is mainly due to the initial success of its strategic transition from generic drugs to innovative drugs, progress in business expansion, and the creation of new profit growth drivers.