Wood products sector suffers production capacity decline

The Canadian wood products sector saw a decline in production capacity during the third quarter. The statistics show a capacity utilization rate of 76%, which was down from 76.6% in the Q2 and 80.6% in Q3 2022.

This downward trend reflects broader challenges facing the manufacturing sector, with the wood product manufacturing industry experiencing a downward trajectory over the past few quarters. Despite this, other sectors such as construction have maintained relatively steady capacity utilization rates, with the construction industry reporting 84.1% in the latest quarter.

Overall, Canadian industries exhibited a modest uptick in production capacity during Q3, operating at 79.7%. The manufacturing sector saw a 0.3 percentage point increase in capacity utilization, reaching 78.3%. This growth was primarily propelled by the performance of primary metal manufacturing, which saw a 2.2 percentage point increase, and metal product manufacturing, which recorded a 1.3 percentage point rise.