China reports highest industrial capacity utilization in five years

BEIJING - China's industrial capacity utilization amounted to 76.6 percent in the first three quarters this year, the highest level in five years, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

In the third quarter, industrial capacity utilization stood at 76.8 percent, flat with the previous quarter and 3.6 percentage points higher than the same period last year, the NBS said.

The survey made among 41 sectors showed that 39 of them had posted higher capacity utilization year-on-year.

The capacity utilization in equipment manufacturing sector surged to 79.1 percent, higher than the average over July-September.

"The efficiency of China's capacity cutting campaign has been increasingly remarkable and the supply-demand relations have steadily improved since the beginning of this year thanks to the on-going supply-side structural reform," an NBS official said. "On the next stage, China should further advance supply-side structural reform and continue to phase out backward and low-end capacities, to increase effective supply and cultivate new growth drivers."