Manufacturing sales in Canada increased for the eighth time in nine months, advancing 0.4 percent to $44.8 billion in May, Statistics Canada reported on July 15. The motor vehicle and parts industries were the primary contributors to the higher sales. Excluding motor vehicle and parts, total manufacturing sales edged down 0.1%. Constant dollar manufacturing sales rose 0.4% in May, the ninth consecutive monthly increase.
Higher sales were reported in nine of 21 industries, representing 48.9% of total sales.
Note to readers
All data in this release is seasonally adjusted and is expressed in current dollars unless otherwise specified.
Preliminary data is provided for the current reference month. Revised data, based on late responses, is updated for the three previous months.
Non-durable goods industries include food, beverage and tobacco products, textile mills, textile product mills, clothing, leather and allied products, paper, printing and related support activities, petroleum and coal products, chemicals, and plastics and rubber products.
Durable goods industries include wood products, non-metallic mineral products, primary metals, fabricated metal products, machinery, computer and electronic products, electrical equipment, appliances and components, transportation equipment, furniture and related products and miscellaneous manufacturing.
Production-based industries
For the aerospace industry and shipbuilding industries, the value of production is used instead of sales of goods manufactured. This value is calculated by adjusting monthly sales of goods manufactured by the monthly change in inventories of goods in process and finished products manufactured.
Unfilled orders are a stock of orders that will contribute to future sales assuming that the orders are not cancelled.
New orders are those received whether sold in the current month or not. New orders are measured as the sum of sales for the current month plus the change in unfilled orders from the previous month to the current month.
Industries manufacturing durable goods saw sales rise 1.6% in May, more than enough to counterbalance the 0.7% drop in the non-durable goods sector. Lower industrial prices in petroleum contributed to the decrease in non-durable goods.
Transportation equipment manufacturers led the gains
In the transportation equipment sector, which posted a 3.1% increase overall, the motor vehicle industry was up 4.6%, while motor vehicle parts manufacturing increased 2.8%. Other increases in May included miscellaneous manufacturing (+17.9%) and the food industry (+1.5%).
Half of the provinces post higher sales in May
Ontario (+1.5%) and British Columbia (+2.1%) led the five provinces posting higher sales in absolute terms in May. Nova Scotia (+2.9%), Alberta (+0.3%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+0.6%) also posted gains.
Higher sales in Ontario were largely attributable to the motor vehicle (+4.5%) and motor vehicle parts (+2.7%) industries, as well as the miscellaneous manufacturing (+35.6%) industry. Manufacturing activity in Ontario has increased in five of the past six months.
In British Columbia, sales increased in paper manufacturing (+6.0%), and computer and electronic product manufacturing (+25.3%).
Sales were down in Quebec (-0.8%), New Brunswick (-5.3%), Saskatchewan (-1.7%), Prince Edward Island (-7.7%) and Manitoba (-0.5%) in May.
In Quebec, manufacturing sales were down in May following a 1.1% increase in April. An 8.4% sales decrease in the petroleum and coal product industry was price and volume based. The chemical industry (-7.4%) also contributed to lower sales.
Manufacturers in New Brunswick also posted lower sales following a strong April. Much of the decline was concentrated in the durable goods sector.
Inventory levels down
Inventory levels decreased 0.7% to $58.5 billion in May following a 0.1% rise in April. The largest inventory decline was in the petroleum and coal product industry (-15.5%). This was partially offset by a 3.4% increase in the fabricated metal product industry.
The inventory-to-sales ratio decreased to 1.30 in May, the lowest level since July 2008. The ratio continued the downward trend which began in the spring of 2009.
Unfilled orders increase
Unfilled orders increased 1.3% to $53.4 billion in May. This advance was largely driven by the aerospace product and parts (+1.2%) and the machinery manufacturing industries (+3.0%).
New orders increased 2.5% to $45.5 billion in May. Most of the increases were in the aerospace product and parts, fabricated metal product and machinery manufacturing industries.
Available on CANSIM: tables 304-0014, 304-0015 and 377-0008.
Table 304-0014: Canada data (sales, inventories, orders) by industry.
Table 304-0015: Provincial sales by industry.
Table 377-0008: Constant dollar sales, inventories and orders.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2101.
Data from the June Monthly Survey of Manufacturing will be released on August 17.
For a more detailed synopsis of the trends and indicators that affected manufacturers in 2009, consult "Manufacturing: The year 2009 in review" article released in Analysis in Brief (11-621-M, free) on June 24, 2010.
For more information, or to order data, contact the dissemination officer (toll-free 1-866-873-8789; 613-951-9497; fax: 613-951-3877; manufact@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Gwen Harding (613-951-1179, gwen.harding@statcan.gc.ca), Manufacturing and Energy Division.
Table 1
| May 2009 | April 2010r | May 2010p | April to May 2010 | May 2009 to May 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | |||||
| $ millions | % change1 | ||||
| Manufacturing sales (current dollars) | 38,488 | 44,639 | 44,839 | 0.4 | 16.5 |
| Manufacturing sales (2002 constant dollars) | 36,174 | 41,296 | 41,445 | 0.4 | 14.6 |
| Manufacturing sales excluding motor vehicles, parts and accessories (current dollars) | 34,988 | 39,092 | 39,068 | -0.1 | 11.7 |
| Inventories | 62,792 | 58,901 | 58,506 | -0.7 | -6.8 |
| Unfilled orders | 58,648 | 52,691 | 53,396 | 1.3 | -9.0 |
| Unfilled orders excluding motor vehicles, parts and accessories | 57,850 | 52,026 | 52,740 | 1.4 | -8.8 |
| New orders | 34,047 | 44,437 | 45,545 | 2.5 | 33.8 |
| New orders excluding motor vehicles, parts and accessories | 30,626 | 38,728 | 39,782 | 2.7 | 29.9 |
| Inventory-to-sales ratio | 1.63 | 1.32 | 1.30 | ... | ... |
Table 2
| Major group of industries | May 2009 | April 2010r | May 2010p | April to May 2010 | May 2009 to May 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | |||||
| $ millions | % change1 | ||||
| Food manufacturing | 6,671 | 6,989 | 7,091 | 1.5 | 6.3 |
| Beverage and tobacco product | 862 | 891 | 890 | -0.1 | 3.2 |
| Textile mills | 120 | 131 | 135 | 3.1 | 12.9 |
| Textile product mills | 133 | 156 | 158 | 0.9 | 18.1 |
| Clothing manufacturing | 213 | 172 | 185 | 7.2 | -13.2 |
| Leather and allied product | 31 | 32 | 32 | -1.1 | 2.8 |
| Wood product | 1,323 | 1,653 | 1,652 | -0.1 | 24.8 |
| Paper manufacturing | 1,990 | 2,173 | 2,217 | 2.0 | 11.4 |
| Printing and related support activities | 739 | 708 | 703 | -0.7 | -4.9 |
| Petroleum and coal product | 4,511 | 5,574 | 5,469 | -1.9 | 21.3 |
| Chemical | 3,467 | 3,827 | 3,635 | -5.0 | 4.9 |
| Plastics and rubber products | 1,517 | 1,790 | 1,781 | -0.5 | 17.4 |
| Non-metallic mineral product | 967 | 1,132 | 1,126 | -0.5 | 16.5 |
| Primary metal | 2,459 | 3,507 | 3,466 | -1.2 | 40.9 |
| Fabricated metal product | 2,340 | 2,478 | 2,470 | -0.3 | 5.6 |
| Machinery | 2,158 | 2,251 | 2,283 | 1.4 | 5.8 |
| Computer and electronic product | 1,416 | 1,332 | 1,357 | 1.9 | -4.2 |
| Electrical equipment, appliance and component | 753 | 794 | 787 | -1.0 | 4.4 |
| Transportation equipment | 5,142 | 7,329 | 7,556 | 3.1 | 47.0 |
| Motor vehicle | 2,358 | 3,875 | 4,052 | 4.6 | 71.9 |
| Motor vehicle body and trailer | 210 | 244 | 237 | -3.0 | 12.8 |
| Motor vehicle parts | 1,142 | 1,672 | 1,719 | 2.8 | 50.6 |
| Aerospace product and parts | 959 | 1,181 | 1,194 | 1.1 | 24.5 |
| Railroad rolling stock | 64 | 98 | 106 | 7.7 | 65.4 |
| Ship and boat building | 112 | 114 | 105 | -7.7 | -6.4 |
| Furniture and related product | 837 | 901 | 882 | -2.1 | 5.4 |
| Miscellaneous manufacturing | 839 | 818 | 964 | 17.9 | 14.9 |
| Non-durable goods industries | 20,253 | 22,443 | 22,296 | -0.7 | 10.1 |
| Durable goods industries | 18,235 | 22,195 | 22,543 | 1.6 | 23.6 |
