China Industrial Capacity Usage Falls to 73.1% in Q3

The industrial capacity utilization rate in China fell to 73.1% in the third quarter of 2026 from 74.6% in the corresponding period in the previous year. The decline was driven by lower production across the three major categories, such as the mining industry (69.5% vs 72.5% in Q3 2025), manufacturing industry (73.3% vs 74.8%), and electricity, heat, gas, and water supply (72.6% vs 74.3%). Among major industries, automobile manufacturing (66.2% vs 73.3%) recorded the sharpest decline, followed by ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry (75.1% vs 80.1%), and non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry (73.5% vs 77.8%), while specialized equipment manufacturing industry (77.7% vs 79.9%) were among the strongest performers. Compared with the second quarter, industrial capacity utilization was over two-year low of 73%, up 0.1 percentage points.

The industrial capacity utilization rate in China fell to 73% in the second quarter of 2026 from 74% in the corresponding period in the previous year. 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 (69.1% vs 72.7% in Q2 2025), manufacturing industry (73.5% vs 74.3%), and electricity, heat, gas, and water supply (70.4% vs 71.5%). Among major industries, coal mining and washing (61.2% vs. 69.3%) recorded the sharpest decline, while general equipment manufacturing (80.1% vs. 78.3%) and computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing (78.7% vs. 77.3%) were among the strongest performers. Compared with the first quarter, industrial capacity utilization rose to 73.6%, up 0.6 percentage points. For the first half of the year, capacity utilization averaged 73.3%, down 0.7 percentage points from the same period in 2025.

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.