Industrial capacity utilization rates, first quarter 2023
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Released: 2023-06-09
81.9%
First quarter 2023
0.1 pts 
(quarterly change)
Canadian industries operated at 81.9% of their production capacity in the first quarter, up slightly from 81.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Increase in the manufacturing capacity utilization rate
The capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing sector rose 1.0 percentage point to 78.1% in the first quarter. Capacity utilization increased in 13 of the 21 major manufacturing industry groups, representing approximately 75% of gross domestic product in the manufacturing sector. Transportation equipment manufacturing rose 3.7 percentage points to 80.7% in the first quarter. This quarter saw increased activity in motor vehicle manufacturing (+29.1%) as well as higher exports of passenger cars and light trucks (+25.9%).
Increases in capacity utilization rates in fabricated metal products manufacturing (+2.0 percentage points) and in petroleum and coal product manufacturing (+3.0 percentage points) also contributed to the gain in the manufacturing sector.
Chart 1
Variation by industry, in percentage points, first quarter of 2023 compared with fourth quarter of 2022
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector contracts
Capacity utilization in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector fell 0.9 percentage points to 79.5% in the first quarter. Decreased activity was observed in non-metallic mineral mining (-6.0%) and in oil and gas contract drilling (-7.9%). The construction sector fell 0.3 percentage points to 90.2% in the first quarter.
Chart 2
Industrial capacity utilization in non-manufacturing industries
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.
In this release, the industrial capacity utilization rates from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing were seasonally adjusted using X-12 ARIMA from the first quarter of 2017.
Data for non-manufacturing industries have been revised back to the first quarter of 2022 to account for revisions to the source data and new estimates from the statistical model.
Next release
Data on industrial capacity utilization rates for the second quarter will be released on September 8.
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.
The Economic accounts statistics portal, accessible from the Subjects module of the Statistics Canada website, features an up-to-date portrait of national and provincial economies and their structure.
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
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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