How Montreal's metal shops show up online
94%
We read the websites of 170 metal shops in Montreal, part of our study of 2,095 shops in 23 Canadian cities. Here is what they show buyers, and how Montreal compares.
What buyers in Montreal see
Montreal is where CWB is hardest to find. Of the 69 Montreal shops that offer welding, 65 don't mention CWB on their site, the highest share of the 23 cities. Structural work shows the same gap: only 3 of 26 structural steel shops mention it, though CSA S16 calls for CWB on that work. Overall, 84% show no ISO or CWB certification at all.
The basics
Four basics, and how Montreal compares
- 84%show no ISO or CWB certificationAll 23 cities: 74% · 10 points higher · tied 2nd highest of 23 cities
- 55%name none of their equipmentAll 23 cities: 54% · 1 point higher · 10th lowest of 23 cities
- 95%don't say how many people work thereAll 23 cities: 96% · 1 point lower · tied 6th lowest of 23 cities
- 48%don't say when they startedAll 23 cities: 49% · 1 point lower · tied 11th highest of 23 cities
23 of the 26 structural steel shops in Montreal don't mention CWB.
The shop map
Every one of Montreal's 170 shops, one dot each
Pick what the colours show.
Shows a certification: 27Shows none: 143
Names its equipment: 76Names none: 94
Gives its team size: 8Doesn't say: 162
Each dot is a listed shop with a website, moved a little (about 250 m) so no single shop can be picked out. The darker outline is Montreal. The others are its neighbouring municipalities.
What a buyer checks
A shop's spec sheet, the way most Montreal sites read it
A made-up Montreal shop. A line is struck through when most of the city's 170 sites leave it out.
Sample Fabricating, Montreal
Sample shop, not a real company
- Services
Fabrication, welding, laser cuttingOn nearly every site - Phone
555 010 0142Shown on 165 of 170 - Certification
CWB W47.1 · ISO 9001Missing on 143 of 170 - Equipment
4 kW fiber laser · 220 t press brake · 5 axis millMissing on 94 of 170 - Year started
Since 1989Shown on 89 of 170 - Team size
34 peopleMissing on 162 of 170 - Small jobs
One-offs welcomeMissing on 102 of 170
The oldest Montreal shop that gives a year started in 1851.
How it compares
Where Montreal sits among the 23 cities
Each dot is one of the 23 cities. The dark line is all 23 cities together. Each row runs from the lowest city to the highest.
Show no ISO or CWB certification
60%85%
Name none of their equipment
34%73%
Don't say how many people work there
89%100%
Don't say when they started
33%60%
Don't say whether they take small jobs
31%77%
Close to home
Montreal and its neighbours
Laval 10 km · Longueuil 15 km · Terrebonne 25 km
| Measure | Montreal170 shops | Laval37 shops | Longueuil108 shops | Terrebonne52 shops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No certification | 84% | 84% | 76% | 81% |
| No equipment | 55% | 60% | 58% | 58% |
| No team size | 95% | 97% | 94% | 89% |
| No year founded | 48% | 51% | 57% | 40% |
How long they have been at it
89 Montreal shops say when they started
- Middle year
- 1990
- tied 11th oldest of 23 cities
- Started in 2001 or earlier
- 79%
- tied 6th highest of 23 cities
- Oldest year given
- 1851
The other 81 give no year. Plum: started in 2001 or earlier. Teal: since 2002.
What people search for
What people in Montreal search for, and what shops show
- 480searches a month for “soudure”from Montreal94%of welding shops in Montreal don't mention CWB
- 720searches a month for “cnc machining”from Montreal32%of machine shops in Montreal name none of their machines
- 90searches a month for “metal fabrication”from Montreal55%of shop websites in Montreal name none of their equipment
Source: Google Keyword Planner, average monthly searches from October 2025 to September 2026, read on October 28, 2026 for Metal Shop Guide. “From Montreal” means people searching there. “Across Canada” means searches that name the city.
What they show and what they do
Certifications and trades in Montreal
Certifications on their websites
| Group | Montreal | All 23 cities | Rank of 23 |
|---|---|---|---|
| None of these | 84% | 74% | tied 2nd |
| ISO only | 13% | 12% | tied 9th |
| CWB only | 3% | 12% | Tied lowest |
| Both ISO and CWB | 0% | 3% | Tied lowest |
ISO here means ISO 9001, AS9100 or ISO 13485. CWB means CWB W47.1 or W47.2. Rank 1 is the city with the biggest share.
The work they offer
| Work | Montreal | All 23 cities | Rank of 23 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metal fabrication | 62% | 69% | 18th |
| Machining | 44% | 40% | tied 6th |
| Welding | 41% | 49% | 19th |
| Sheet metal, cutting and bending | 31% | 40% | 22nd |
| Railings and stairs | 22% | 20% | tied 9th |
| Structural steel | 15% | 20% | 17th |
Shares of all the city's shops. A shop can do several kinds of work. Rank 1 is the city with the biggest share.
If the certificate isn't on the site, a buyer assumes there isn't one
Industry in Montreal
A few numbers on industry in Montreal
- 95,400manufacturing jobs in the Montréal region, 2025Source: Government of Quebec, socio-economic portrait of Montréal
- 37,000+aerospace jobs in Greater Montréal, 2023Source: Montréal International (June 19, 2023)
- $26/hrmedian machinist pay, Montréal regionSource: Job Bank, Government of Canada
From the city's page on Metal Shop Guide, each with its source.
For shop owners
In Montreal, add these three things first
In the order of the city's own gaps: what most sites here leave out first.
- 0195%of sites here don't show it
How many you are
Roughly how many people work there.
- 0284%of sites here don't show it
Your certifications, by name and standard
CWB W47.1 Division 2, ISO 9001:2015, AS9100D. Link the certificate.
- 0360%of sites here don't show it
The jobs you take
One-offs, prototypes, short runs or production only. If there's a minimum, say so.
Source
Where these numbers come from
For Montreal, Metal Shop Guide covers Montreal Island and lists 170 shops. All of them have a website of their own, and we read them, as of October 28, 2026. “Not shown” means we didn't find it on the pages we read. A blind check of 40 shops suggests each share is a few points high.
One shop is 0.6% of the Montreal total, so small gaps can be chance.
Cite this page: Figured Media, “How Montreal's metal shops show up online”, October 2026, with data from Metal Shop Guide. https://figuredmedia.com/research/metal-shops-online-2026/montreal/
Photo credits
- Montreal, at the top: Photo by Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0, edited (cropped)
- Shop floor, behind the quote: Photo by Cemrecan Yurtman, Unsplash License, edited (cropped)
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Shop map: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census boundary files, Open Government Licence, Canada. Country map: Natural Earth, public domain.