Canada chemical plant utilisation rises to 79.0% in Q1

14 June 2012 14:49  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--Capacity utilisation at Canada-based chemical plants rose by 0.8 percentage points to 79.0% in the 2012 first quarter from the 2011 fourth quarter, a statistics agency said on Thursday.

Compared with the first quarter of 2011, Canadian chemical plant utilisation was up by 2.5 percentage points, Ottawa-based Statistics Canada said.

Meanwhile, plant capacity utilisation in Canada’s plastics industry was 77.8% in the first quarter of 2012, up by 1.3 percentage points from the 2011 fourth quarter, and up by 6.0 percentage points from the 2011 first quarter.

In Canada’s rubber industry, first quarter plant capacity utilisation was 86.7%, up by 1.0 percentage points from the fourth quarter and up by 4.5 percentage points from the 2011 first quarter.

Canada’s overall manufacturing capacity utilisation was up by 0.7 percentage points to 81.3% in the first quarter – the third straight advance since a decline in the second quarter of 2011.

The largest contributors to the increase were the transportation equipment, machinery, wood product manufacturing and fabricated metal products industries.

Compared with the first quarter of 2011, Canada’s overall manufacturing capacity utilisation was up by 2.6 percentage points.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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