Features Mills Sawmilling
Mill capacity utilization up over 2015

Dec. 6, 2016 - According to recent numbers from Statistics Canada, capacity utilization is up over 2015 among both wood products and paper manufacturers, while declining for forestry and logging operations. In all cases, however, utilization fell from Q1 2016 to Q2 2016.

Comparing capacity utilization between Q2 2015 and Q2 2016, wood products manufacturers saw a 5.9 per cent increase from 89.2 per cent to 95.1 per cent. This was a 2.4 per cent drop from Q1 2016’s rate of 97.5 per cent.

In the case of paper manufacturing, there was a 3.6 per cent increase in capacity utilization between Q2 2015 and Q2 2016 from 91.4 per cent to 95 per cent, but a 2.5 per cent drop from Q1 2016 (97.5 per cent).

In the forestry and logging sector, capacity utilization fell from 93.3 per cent to 87.0 per cent (-6.3 per cent) from Q2 2015 to Q2 2016, and 2.1 per cent from Q1 2016.



In all cases, the capacity utilization rates for the forest industry in general are currently significantly higher than most other sectors in Canada’s economy. Full stats for all sectors are available here.

December 6, 2016  By Scott Jamieson