Rising commodity prices helped Canadian corporations post record operating profits through the first three months of this year, Statistics Canada said today.

Canadian firms made $63.8 billion in operating profits in the first quarter of 2007, up 2.9% over the previous quarter.

StatsCan said it was the fourth consecutive quarterly increase in profits and the ninth gain in the past 10 quarters.

“About half of the overall profit gain can be attributed to rising commodity prices, which boosted earnings in the petroleum and coal products, and primary metal manufacturing industries,” the government agency said.

Among sectors outside the financial services group, operating profits hit $46.2 billion, up 5.1% from the fourth quarter of 2006, on strong results from the petroleum and primary metal manufacturing industries.

Profits of petroleum and coal manufacturers rebounded by almost 34% to $2.7 billion following a decline of more than 42% in the previous quarter. Refined petroleum prices increased in the first quarter due to refinery output shortfalls, ongoing world political tensions and a winter cold spell in North America.

Strong demand from China kept prices high as primary metal producers posted profits of $1.6 billion, up 23.1% from the fourth quarter.

While petroleum and metals producers rode the wave of higher prices, the wood and paper manufacturing industry posted the largest decline in profits. Earnings in the forestry sector fell by more than half to $263 million. The strong Canadian dollar and reduced demand for lumber, due to the slowdown in the U.S. housing market, hurt producers.

Profits of financial industries dipped 2.5% to $17.6 billion in the first quarter, following a 6.7% gain in the final three months of 2006. The drop was driven by property and casualty insurers whose profits fell 22.8% to $1.7 billion.