The GCC countries have built an investment base of $426 billion across nearly 22,000 factories, according to the data from the Statistical Centre for the Co-operation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC-Stat).

Manufacturing contributed approximately 13% of the GCC states’ gross domestic product in 2025, underscoring the sector’s importance in supporting the economies of the member states, advancing economic diversification and increasing the contribution of non-oil activities.

As per GCC-Stat data, about 40% of these industrial investments are concentrated in a group of key industries, including plastics, refined petroleum products, aluminium, gaseous fuels, and iron and steel. 

These industries form an important foundation for manufacturing and intermediate industries and support the integration of industrial value chains.

The Gulf industrial sector employs more than 1.7 million people, according to the latest available statistical data as of July 2026.

In foreign trade, industrial products account for approximately 69% of total GCC exports. Key exports include petroleum gases and hydrocarbons, petroleum oils, motor vehicles, organic compounds, aluminium, ships and boats, and electrical machinery and equipment.

On the import side, China accounts for around 20% of total GCC imports, making it the region’s largest source of imports. 

Major imported goods include equipment and machinery, motor vehicles, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, and plastics, with supplies sourced from a diverse range of markets, it stated.

These indicators reflect the expanding and diversifying industrial base across the GCC, as well as differences in the scale of industrial activity among the member states in terms of investment and factory numbers. 

This is driving efforts to expand production capacity, develop value chains, strengthen GCC industrial integration, localise industries and enhance the competitiveness of Gulf products in global markets, it added.-TradeArabia News Service