By Robb M. Stewart
OTTAWA--The intensity at which industries in Canada used their production capacity edged higher during the third quarter of the year, thanks to modest gains by manufacturing and a recovery in natural gas output.
Overall, the country's industrial capacity utilization rate was 79.7% in the July-to-September period, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous quarter, though down 0.6 point from a year earlier, Statistics Canada said Friday. The consensus forecast wasn't immediately available.
The industrial capacity utilization rate is the ratio of an industry's actual output to its estimated potential output.
Statistics Canada said the modest advance in capacity utilization during the third quarter was pushed by an 0.3 point increase in the rate for the manufacturing sector to 78.3%, driven by the strength of primary metal and metal product manufacturing. Capacity utilization in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction increased 0.9 point to 76.7%, as activity in oil and gas increased following a slowdown in natural gas extraction in the second quarter due to forest fires.
The utilization rate declined in the electric power generation, transmission and distribution industry from the quarter before, as total electricity generation in Canada fell in August with drier conditions and droughts across large areas of the country, the agency said.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-08-23 0900ET
