16.04.202602:30:16UTC+00China Industrial Capacity Utilization Hits 2-Year Low

China’s industrial capacity utilization rate declined to 73.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026, down from 74.1 percent in the same period a year earlier. This was the lowest level since the first quarter of 2024 and reflected weaker output across all three major sectors: the mining industry (72.1 percent vs. 74.6 percent in Q1 2025), the manufacturing industry (73.9 percent vs. 74.1 percent), and the electricity, heat, gas, and water supply sector (71.9 percent vs. 73.6 percent).

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, capacity utilization fell from 74.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points. For the full year 2025, the utilization rate averaged 74.4 percent, 0.6 percentage points lower than in the previous year.