Canadian manufacturers continue to increase their factory capacity utilization.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector increased from 76.6% in February to 81.7% in March, the highest rate since May 2019, according to Statistics Canada.
The capacity utilization rates increased in all 21 industries in March, but were particularly pronounced in the transportation equipment (+10.4 percentage points) industry. Higher production of motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts were responsible for the increase in capacity utilization.
Fabricated metal product manufacturing capacity utilization was up 3.1 percentage points from the previous month and 4.1 percentage points year over year.
