Industrial capacity utilization rates, third quarter 2023
Released: 2023-12-08
79.7%
Third quarter 2023
0.1 pts 
(quarterly change)
Canadian industries operated at 79.7% of their production capacity in the third quarter, up slightly from 79.6% in the second quarter.
Capacity utilization in manufacturing edges up
The capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing sector edged up 0.3 percentage points to 78.3% in the third quarter. The increase was driven by the strength of primary metal manufacturing (+2.2 percentage points) and metal product manufacturing (+1.3 percentage points).
Chart 1
Variation by industry, in percentage points, third quarter of 2023 compared with second quarter of 2023
Mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction increases
Capacity utilization in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector increased 0.9 percentage points to 76.7% in the third quarter. Following the slowdown in natural gas extraction due to the forest fires in the second quarter, increased activity was observed in oil and gas extraction (+2.1%).
Chart 2
Industrial capacity utilization in non-manufacturing industries
Conversely, capacity utilization in the electric power generation, transmission and distribution industry declined 1.9 percentage points to 79.3% in the third quarter. According to Energy statistics, total electricity generation in Canada fell 11.6% year over year in August, attributable to drier conditions or droughts across a large area of the country.
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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 have been revised back to the first quarter of 1987 to account for revisions to the source data and new estimates from the statistical model. For example, the reference year in the source data has changed for volume and price estimates (2017=100).
Next release
Data on industrial capacity utilization rates for the fourth quarter of 2023 will be released on March 8, 2024.
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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