Mfg sector operated at 83.8% of capacity in Q3: StatsCan

Dec. 17, 2014 – Statistics Canada is reporting that Canadian industries operated at 83.4 per cent of their production capacity in the third quarter of 2014, up from 82.8 per cent in the previous quarter. According to the agency, the manufacturing and construction industries were the main sources of this increase.

It notes that the manufacturing sector operated at 83.8 per cent of its capacity in the third quarter, up 1.0 percentage point from the previous quarter thanks to the food manufacturing and transportation equipment manufacturing industries, it says.

The capacity utilization rate rose in 15 of the 21 major manufacturing groups, which accounts for about 80 per cent of the sector’s gross domestic product. The rate was down in six industries, led by paper manufacturing.

Higher output in every food manufacturing subsector except fruit and vegetable preserving added to a 2.2 percentage-point increase in the industry’s capacity utilization rate. The rate was 80.5 per cent in the third quarter, its highest level since the fourth quarter of 2011.

Meanwhile, higher production of motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts bumped up the capacity utilization rate in the transportation equipment industry, rising from 94.2 per cent in the second quarter to 95.6 per cent in the third quarter.

In machinery manufacturing, capacity use fell 1.5 percentage points to 80.7 per cent in the third quarter. This decline was attributable to lower production of all types of machinery except agricultural and industrial machinery, says the agency.