China Industrial Capacity Utilization Hits 2-Year Low

2026-04-16 02:30 By Joshua Ferrer 1 min. read

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.



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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.
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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.
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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.
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