Industrial capacity utilization rates, second quarter 2023
Released: 2023-09-08
81.4%
Second quarter 2023
-0.4 pts 
(quarterly change)
Canadian industries operated at 81.4% of their production capacity in the second quarter, down slightly from 81.8% in the first quarter.
The construction sector contracts
Capacity utilization in the construction sector fell 1.2 percentage points to 88.5% in the second quarter, the lowest capacity utilization rate since the third quarter of 2020. This decrease in the second quarter of 2023 was the second consecutive quarterly decline and coincided with a contraction in residential construction activities (-6.2%). Investment in construction of single-family dwellings fell 10.5%, according to the Investment in Building Construction program.
Capacity utilization in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector fell 0.5 percentage points to 79.5% in the second quarter. Lower activity in iron ore mining (-12.8%) and natural gas extraction (-2.4%) was observed. The forest fires in western Alberta contributed to the slowdown in the extraction of natural gas and crude oil.
Chart 1
Industrial capacity utilization in non-manufacturing industries
Capacity utilization in manufacturing edges up
The capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing sector edged up 0.2 percentage points to 78.0% in the second quarter. The increase was mainly attributable to the strength of the transportation equipment manufacturing subsector, the rate of which rose 4.2 percentage points to 85.4% in the second quarter. This increase reflects improvements to earlier challenges with the supply chain.
Chart 2
Variation by industry, in percentage points, second quarter of 2023 compared with first quarter of 2023
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 December 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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