Capacity use rising but manufacturers lag

OTTAWA— Statistics Canada says that after four quarterly increases, the manufacturing sector faltered in the second quarter of this year in the amount of capacity it used to make goods. But all other industrial sectors showed robust growth in the second quarter and that boosted the total use of industrial capacity to 86.7 per cent between April and June. That was up marginally from 86.5 per cent in the first three months of this year. But that slight gain took the rate to its highest point since the fourth quarter of 2000 and was not far below the peak of 87.6 per cent set in the first quarter of 1988. The decline in manufacturing was attributable to weak export growth, with the slowdown hitting vehicle and automotiveparts manufacturers especially hard. Sectors showing strong growth included mining and oilandextraction, forestry, construction and electricity production. The agency defines an industry’s capacity utilization rate as ‘‘ the ratio of its actual output to its estimated potential output.”