Industrial investment in the Gulf Cooperation Council states stands at about $426 billion, spread across nearly 22 thousand factories employing more than 1.7 million workers, according to the latest data available up to July 2026 from the GCC Statistical Center (GCC-Stat).

Manufacturing accounted for about 13.0% of the GCC's gross domestic product in 2025, highlighting the sector's role in economic diversification and in raising the share of non-oil activity.

Around 40% of industrial investment is concentrated in core industries such as plastics, refined petroleum products, aluminium, gaseous fuels and iron and steel, which feed manufacturing and intermediate industries.

Industrial goods make up about 69% of total GCC exports, led by petroleum gases and hydrocarbons, petroleum oils, cars, organic chemicals, aluminium, ships and boats, and electrical machinery and equipment.

China is the largest source of GCC imports, at about 20% of the total. The main imported goods are equipment and machinery, cars, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, and plastics, drawn from a wide range of suppliers.