Capacity utilization for fabricated metal manufacturing impoved 0.9% in February and is up 5.5% year-over-year. PHOTO courtesy BLM.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the manufacturing sector decreased from 78.9% in January to 77.0% in February, with lower capacity utilization rates in 14 of 21 industries, according to Statistics Canada.
Fabricated metal manufacturing, however, bucked the trend with capacity utilization for the month improving by 0.9% from 75.7% to 76.6%. More impressive was the 5.5% improvement in capacity utilization compared to February of 2022.
Primary metal manufacturing was one of the 14 industries posting a decline for the month, showing a -3.9% drop. The decreases were partially offset by a higher capacity utilization rate in the machinery industry (+1.7 percentage points).
Transportation equipment, an important customer segment for metalworking job shops, suffered a 2.5% drop in capacity utilization compared to the previous month but is still showing a 9.3% improvement in capacity utilization year-over-year.
