Industrial Energy Costs Differ by Nearly 3.5x Across 33 Major Economies
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — August 25, 2026 — Industrial energy costs vary by nearly 3.5 times across the 33 major economies compared in Intratec's Industry Economics & Competitiveness 2025 Annual Review, published today — from $12.1 per MMBtu in Saudi Arabia, the cheapest of the 33, to $42.0 in the United Kingdom, the most expensive.
The review compares 33 major economies on the same basis across 14 pillars — among them energy, manufacturing and construction labor costs, taxation and market access — with findings drawn across 7 industries.
Neither end of the gap is new. Saudi Arabia has held the cheapest energy of the 33 for eleven years running. The United Kingdom has stayed among the three most expensive every year since 2015, and its price has not come back down to its pre-2022-spike level even as the 33-country average cooled from $30.4 at that same 2022 spike to $24.0 in 2025.
Among the ten highest-ranked economies overall, the United States posted the steepest year-on-year decline: it fell to 9th of 33 — its lowest finish in the report's eleven years — as manufacturing labor costs rose 4% to $50.8 an hour, even as its own industrial energy eased 1% to $22.3 per MMBtu.
"At $42 per MMBtu, Britain pays the most for industrial energy of the 33 countries we track — nearly three and a half times what Saudi Arabia pays. It has not left the bottom three on energy in a decade, and prices never came back down after the 2022 spike."
— Alexandre Carvalho, Analyst, Industry Economics & Competitiveness
China closed 2025 on top of the overall ranking for an eleventh straight year, and the four countries behind it held their exact 2024 positions.
The Industry Economics & Competitiveness 2025 Annual Review is free to read, and its methodology is open.
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