Statistics Canada reports growth in industrial production capacity

OTTAWA
Source

Canadian industries saw a slight increase in their production capacity in the fourth quarter, Statistics Canada recently announced.

The fourth quarter rate of 80.5 per cent of production capacity was up slightly from 80 per cent in the third quarter. The increase would have been greater if not for the slight decline in the non-manufacturing sector.

The construction industry remained unchanged from the third quarter and operated at 77.4 per cent of its capacity.

The oil and gas industry was the only one in the non-manufacturing sector to increase capacity in the fourth quarter, rising from 88.2 per cent to 90.3 per cent. Increased natural gas extraction was the primary reason for this rate gain.

Capacity use declined in the electric power generation, transmission and distribution industry and in the mining and quarrying industry.

With the exception of the second quarter of 2011, which saw a decrease in the capacity utilization rate, the rate has increased steadily since the second quarter of 2009. However, the rate of 80.5 per cent was below that of 83.4 per cent posted in the first quarter of 2007.

The manufacturing industry operated at 80.4 per cent of its capacity in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 1.4 percentage points from 79.0 per cent in the previous quarter.

Among the industries reporting increases, the transportation equipment, machinery, chemical products, plastic products and metal products industries contributed the most to this growth. Capacity use declined in some industries, particularly the paper manufacturing industry.

The industrial capacity utilization rate is the ratio of an industry’s actual output to its estimated potential output. For most industries, the annual estimates are obtained from the Capital and Repair Expenditures Survey while the quarterly pattern is derived from output-to-capital ratio series, the output being the real gross domestic product at factor cost, seasonally adjusted, by industry.

This program covers all manufacturing and selected non-manufacturing industries.

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