China's machinery industry maintained slower but moderate growth in 2012 with positive signs of restructuring and upgrading, the China Machinery Industry Federation said Friday.

Dragged down by an economic downturn at home and abroad, major indices for the machinery industry, including those for output, profits and foreign trade , registered much slower growth in 2012, Cai Weici, a CMIF vice president, said at a press conference.

This shows that the machinery industry has entered a stage of moderate growth compared with rapid expansion in the first decade of the century, Cai said.

The total output of the machinery industry grew 12.64 percent to 18.41 trillion yuan ($2.93 trillion) in 2012, the federation said, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics .

The figure was down sharply from the 25-percent-plus growth registered in 2011 but slightly picked up compared with the first half of 2012, according to CMIF.

Last year, the industry's profits rose only 5.18 percent year-on-year , 15.96 percentage points slower than in 2011, said Cai, adding that rising financial costs have resulted in dropping profitability.

Exports and imports for the machinery industry amounted to $647.2 billion in 2012, up 2.54 percent year-on-year.