Industrial capacity utilization rates, second quarter 2022
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Released: 2022-09-09
83.8%
Second quarter 2022
1.9 pts 
(quarterly change)
Canadian industries operated at 83.8% of their production capacity in the second quarter, up 1.9 percentage points from the previous quarter. This is the highest capacity utilization rate since the second quarter of 2018.
The gains in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector and the manufacturing sector more than offset the losses in construction and other sectors.
Recovery in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction
In the second quarter, in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector, capacity utilization increased 4.0 percentage points to 82.6%, the highest rate since the second quarter of 2019. This was due to higher levels of activity in the oil sands extraction and in the support activities for oil extraction subsectors.
Chart 1
Industrial capacity utilization in non-manufacturing industries
Following two consecutive quarterly gains, capacity utilization in the construction sector dropped 0.9 percentage points to 93.6% in the second quarter. A number of Ontario's unionized construction workers were on strike early in the quarter, causing significant delays in multiple residential and non-residential construction projects in the province.
Capacity utilization in manufacturing increases
Year over year, the capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing sector rose 1.4 percentage points to 78.5% in the second quarter. This is the highest capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing sector since the second quarter of 2019. Year over year, capacity utilization increased in 13 of the 21 major manufacturing industry groups, representing approximately 60% of gross domestic product in the manufacturing sector.
Chart 2
Year-over-year change by industry, second quarter 2022 compared with the second quarter 2021
Transportation equipment manufacturing experienced its third consecutive quarterly gain in its capacity utilization rate, rising to 73.1% in the second quarter. The rate remained lower than that recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019 (83.0%). Despite a resumption in activity since the COVID-19 pandemic, motor vehicle manufacturing continued to face a shortage of semiconductor chips and retooling at some assembly plants.
Machinery manufacturing recorded a year-over-year increase in its capacity utilization rate of 2.7 percentage points to 79.1% in the second quarter. Higher levels of activity were observed in agricultural, construction and mining machinery manufacturing (+7.1%) and in industrial machinery manufacturing (+4.3%). This capacity utilization rate increase in machinery manufacturing coincided with a significant improvement of growing conditions for agricultural products in the Prairies compared with 2021.
In the second quarter, the capacity utilization rate among petroleum and coal product manufacturers was 84.7%, up 3.1 percentage points year over year. Despite the gradual easing of the health measures related to the pandemic, concerns about the global economic slowdown led to a decrease in energy demand. A decline in activity level was observed in petroleum refineries (-3.5%), whose capacity utilization rate was lower than in the previous quarter (90.1%).
Offsetting the overall increase in the manufacturing sector, wood product manufacturers recorded a year-over-year decline of 2.1 percentage points to 84.0% in the second quarter. The decline in residential construction and the weak construction activity in the United States contributed to lower demand for Canadian wood products.
Note to readers
The industrial capacity utilization rate is the ratio of an industry's actual output to its estimated potential output.
This program covers all manufacturing industries, as well as forestry and logging, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, electric power generation, transmission and distribution, and construction.
For non-manufacturing industries, the quarterly pattern is derived from the output-to-capital ratio series, the output being the real gross domestic product at basic prices, seasonally adjusted, by industry.
For this release on industrial capacity utilization rates, the data were revised back to the first quarter of 2021 to reflect the latest revisions to the source data. For manufacturing industries, the data are not seasonally adjusted, as the new survey source (Monthly survey of manufacturing) does not have a long enough time period to perform a seasonal adjustment.
Next release
Data on industrial capacity utilization rates for the third quarter of 2022 will be released on December 9, 2022.
Products
The data visualization product "Overview of the industrial capacity utilization rate: Interactive tool," which is part of the Statistics Canada — Data Visualization Products series (71-607-X), is now available.
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The Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts (13-605-X) is available.
The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-606-G) is available.
The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-607-X) is available.
Contact information
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