China’s industrial capacity utilization rate fell to 73.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026 from 74.1 percent in the same period a year earlier. This marked the lowest reading since the first quarter of 2024, driven by lower production across the three major categories, such as the mining industry (72.1 percent vs 74.6 percent in Q1 2025), manufacturing industry (73.9 percent vs 74.1 percent), and electricity, heat, gas, and water supply (71.9 percent vs 73.6 percent). Compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, industrial capacity utilization was at 74.9 percent, or 1.3 percentage points lower. In 2025, capacity utilization averaged at 74.4 percent, down 0.6 percentage points in the same period a year ago. source: National Bureau of Statistics of China

Capacity Utilization in China decreased to 73.60 percent in the first quarter of 2026 from 74.90 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025. Capacity Utilization in China averaged 75.38 percent from 2013 until 2026, reaching an all time high of 78.40 percent in the second quarter of 2021 and a record low of 67.30 percent in the first quarter of 2020. This page provides - China Capacity Utilization- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. China Industrial Capacity Utilization - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on April of 2026.

Capacity Utilization in China decreased to 73.60 percent in the first quarter of 2026 from 74.90 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025. Capacity Utilization in China is expected to be 76.00 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. In the long-term, the China Industrial Capacity Utilization is projected to trend around 77.00 percent in 2027, according to our econometric models.



Calendar GMT Reference Actual Previous Consensus TEForecast
2026-01-19 02:00 AM
Industrial Capacity Utilization
Q4 74.9% 74.6% 74.4%
2026-04-16 02:00 AM
Industrial Capacity Utilization
Q1 73.6% 74.9% 78.3%
2026-07-15 02:00 AM
Industrial Capacity Utilization
Q2 73.6% 76%


Related Last Previous Unit Reference
NBS Manufacturing PMI 50.40 49.00 points Mar 2026
Industrial Capacity Utilization 73.60 74.90 percent Mar 2026
Cement Production 12310.00 17827.00 Ten Thousands of Tonnes Mar 2026
Changes in Inventories 10002.90 8740.00 CNY Hundred Million Dec 2024
Industrial Profits (YTD) YoY 1024560.00 7398200.00 CNY Million Feb 2026
Electricity Production 802480.00 1571790.00 Gigawatt-hour Mar 2026
Industrial Production YoY 5.70 6.30 percent Mar 2026
Industrial Production Mom 0.28 0.83 percent Mar 2026
Leading Economic Index 145.10 144.90 points Feb 2026
Manufacturing Production YoY 6.00 6.60 percent Mar 2026
Mining Production 5.70 6.10 percent Mar 2026
New Orders 51.60 48.60 points Mar 2026


China Industrial Capacity Utilization
In China, Capacity Utilization is the difference between the potential and actual use of an input. Capacity utilization is high when actual output is close to potential output because the most use is being made of labor and capital. The survey includes about 90,000 industrial enterprises.
Actual Previous Highest Lowest Dates Unit Frequency
73.60 74.90 78.40 67.30 2013 - 2026 percent Quarterly
NSA

News Stream
China Industrial Capacity Utilization Hits 2-Year Low
China’s industrial capacity utilization rate fell to 73.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026 from 74.1 percent in the same period a year earlier. This marked the lowest reading since the first quarter of 2024, driven by lower production across the three major categories, such as the mining industry (72.1 percent vs 74.6 percent in Q1 2025), manufacturing industry (73.9 percent vs 74.1 percent), and electricity, heat, gas, and water supply (71.9 percent vs 73.6 percent). Compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, industrial capacity utilization was at 74.9 percent, or 1.3 percentage points lower. In 2025, capacity utilization averaged at 74.4 percent, down 0.6 percentage points in the same period a year ago.
2026-04-16
China Industrial Capacity Utilization Drops to 74.9% in Q4
China’s industrial capacity utilization rate fell to 74.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025 from 76.2 percent in the same period a year earlier. The decline was driven by lower production in the mining (71.7 percent vs 75.6 percent in Q4 of 2024), manufacturing industry (75.2 percent vs 76.4 percent), and electricity, heat, gas, and water supply (74.0 percent vs 74.8 percent). Compared to the third quarter, the industrial capacity utilization was at 74.6 percent, or 0.3 percentage points higher. For the whole of 2025, capacity utilization averaged at 74.4 percent, down 0.6 percentage points in the same period a year ago.
2026-01-19
China Industrial Capacity Utilization Rate Falls to 74.6%
China’s industrial capacity utilization rate decreased to 74.6 percent in the third quarter of 2025 from 75.1 percent in the same period a year earlier. The decline was driven by lower production in the mining (72.5 percent vs 74.6 percent in Q3 of 2024) and manufacturing industry (74.8 percent vs 75.2 percent). Meanwhile, utilization rate remained unchanged for electricity, heat, gas, and water supply (at 74.3 percent). Compared to the second quarter, the industrial capacity utilization was at 74 percent or 0.6 percentage points higher. For the first three quarters of 2025, capacity utilization averaged at 74.2 percent, down 0.4 percentage points in the same period a year ago.
2025-10-20