In June 2026, China's warehousing index recorded 50.2%, up 0.6 percentage points from the previous month, ending the contraction trend for two consecutive months and returning to above the boom bust line. This industry core indicator, jointly released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and China Reserves Development, outlines the recovery trajectory of the warehousing industry at the end of the second quarter, and the structural recovery on the demand side is gradually offsetting the growth pressure in the early stage.

Core sub items are fully differentiated along the entire line

From the perspective of segmented data, the new order index jumped to 54%, with a monthly increase of 2.3 percentage points, becoming the core driving force behind the index's upward trend. The facility utilization index surged by 4 percentage points to 54% in a single month, directly reflecting the rapid narrowing of the idle rate of storage sites and a significant increase in the actual operational activity of the industry.

In contrast, the business activity expectation index fell 3.5 percentage points to 52.5%, indicating that the cautious sentiment of enterprises towards the future market has not completely dissipated. The slight decline in cost and the synchronous increase in charging prices have led to marginal improvement in the industry's profit margin, with the business profit index slightly increasing by 0.2 percentage points month on month, ending a three-month downward trend.

Structural repair features are highlighted

The category specific data clearly demonstrates the structural characteristics of this round of repairs. Steel and machinery equipment related warehousing orders rebounded first, with new orders and facility utilization rates both in the expansion range, directly corresponding to the demand for commodity circulation brought about by the concentrated construction of major infrastructure projects nationwide.

The pace of inventory turnover has significantly accelerated, with the ending inventory index falling sharply by 3.6 percentage points to 47.3%. The inventory levels of industrial categories such as non-ferrous metals and chemical products have significantly decreased, and the average inventory turnover has synchronously increased. The efficiency of goods circulation in the industrial sector is continuously improving. On the consumer side, it maintained a moderate resilience, and the food and home appliance warehousing business operated smoothly without significant fluctuations.

There is still support for future growth

The continuous implementation of the current stable economic policies, coupled with the accelerated progress of major engineering projects such as the Six Net, will continue to release the incremental demand for warehousing business in the future. The circulation heat of infrastructure related commodities and mechanical equipment is expected to continue, and the moderate recovery of the consumer side will also provide stable basic support for the industry.

Overall, the warehousing industry has emerged from its initial phase of low point, and its subsequent operation will continue to maintain a stable and positive recovery trend. However, the cautious attitude of enterprises towards market expectations also means that the comprehensive recovery of the industry still needs to wait for the release of more incremental demand.Editor/Cheng Liting