Chinese coal prices at the mine gate rose 27.1 percent on the year in July and oil and gas extraction slowed to 3.2 percent, and the two numbers sit in the same table
Twenty seven point one percent. That is the year on year rise in output prices across China's coal mining and washing industry in July, and it is the largest figure in the industry table the National Bureau of Statistics published at half past nine on Sunday morning in Beijing.
The headline is quieter than that. Producer prices at the factory gate rose 3.5 percent against July 2025 and fell 0.7 percent against June. Purchasing prices, which measure what industry pays for the inputs it buys rather than what it charges for what it makes, rose 5.5 percent on the year and fell 1.0 percent on the month. Across the first seven months of 2026 the ex-factory index averages 1.8 percent and the purchasing index 2.8 percent.
Coal went up and oil went down
The two extraction industries moved in opposite directions.
Coal mining and washing rose 4.2 percent against June, the largest monthly increase in the table, and its annual rate went from 20.6 percent in June to 27.1 percent in July. Oil and gas extraction fell 9.2 percent on the month, and its annual rate fell from 16.8 percent to 3.2 percent. That is 13.6 percentage points off an annual rate in a single month.
The industries that buy those inputs followed the oil number rather than the coal one. Petroleum, coal and other fuel processing fell 6.0 percent on the month and stands at 8.2 percent on the year. Chemical raw materials and products fell 2.6 percent on the month and stands at 9.1 percent.
One half of the index is still falling
The bureau splits producer prices into means of production and consumer goods, and publishes what each contributes.
Means of production rose 4.8 percent on the year and added about 3.72 percentage points to the total. Consumer goods fell 0.8 percent and took about 0.17 points back off it. A headline of 3.5 percent is therefore assembled from one half of the index pushing hard and the other half pulling in the opposite direction, which has been the shape of this series all year.
Inside the consumer goods half, food fell 2.1 percent on the year, clothing 1.1 percent and general daily goods 1.0 percent. Durable consumer goods rose 0.4 percent.
The spread across the industry table is wide in both directions. Non-ferrous metal ore mining rose 22.6 percent on the year and non-ferrous smelting and rolling 20.2 percent. At the other end, electricity and heat production and supply fell 4.0 percent, pharmaceutical manufacturing 4.0 percent, non-metallic mineral products 3.9 percent and car manufacturing 2.3 percent.
The base changed in January
The release carries a note that matters for any comparison drawn across the turn of the year. From January 2026 the index is compiled on a 2025 base year, and the rotation changed the survey catalogue, the enterprises sampled, the representative specifications and the weights. The bureau puts the average effect of that rotation on the monthly year on year figures at about 0.08 percentage points.
No reason is given anywhere in the release for any of the movements above. The bureau publishes the numbers and the contributions, and stops there.
