Canada: Industrial Capacity Utilization Falls in Q4.

Canadian industrial capacity utilization fell to 78.5% in Q4 2025 from an upwardly revised 78.9% in the previous quarter, but came slightly above market expectations of 78.4%. Capacity utilization in the construction sector declined by 0.5 percentage points to 80.4%, marking the eighth drop in the past ten quarters, amid weaker activity in residential and engineering construction. The capacity utilization rate in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector also decreased, falling 0.6 percentage points to 77.1%, in line with lower oil sands extraction activity. Meanwhile, capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector slipped 0.3 percentage points to 77.7%, mainly due to declines in fabricated metal product manufacturing (-6.6 percentage points) and wood product manufacturing (-1.4 percentage points), the latter affected by the US government’s announcement of additional tariffs on Canadian lumber during the quarter.