Monthly Survey of Manufacturing
Archived Content
Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.
Related subjects
-
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Manufacturing sales decreased 1.3% (-$612 million) in April to $46.7 billion. The transportation equipment sector accounted for most of the decline. Manufacturers in the petroleum and coal products industry also reported lower sales. The decrease in total manufacturing sales for April reversed much of the 1.9% gain for March.
Lower sales were reported in 15 of 21 industries, representing about 56% of total manufacturing.
Constant dollar manufacturing sales declined 1.8% in April.
Transportation equipment sales decrease
In the transportation equipment sector, sales fell 7.8% to $7.0 billion in April. The decline reflected an 8.6% drop in the motor vehicle industry and a 5.4% decrease in the motor vehicle parts industry. Manufacturers in both industries reported that the tsunami in Japan affected the availability of some inputs.
Note to readers
All data in this release are seasonally adjusted and are expressed in current dollars unless otherwise specified.
Preliminary data are provided for the current reference month. Revised data, based on late responses, are 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 metal, 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.
Production in the aerospace product and parts industry fell 11.6% in April to $1.2 billion. Manufacturers in the petroleum and coal products industry reported a 1.7% decline, stemming entirely from reduced volumes by some manufacturers.
Higher sales were led by gains in the food (+1.8%), machinery (+3.2%) and chemical (+1.7%) industries.
Manufacturing sales down in most provinces
In April, nine provinces posted lower sales compared with March, with the largest decreases in dollar terms occurring in Ontario and Quebec.
In Ontario, sales decreased 1.8% to $20.7 billion. The decline was largely attributable to an 8.5% drop in motor vehicle and a 5.2% decrease in motor vehicle parts sales. The machinery (-3.2%), petroleum and coal products (-2.0%) and printing and related support activities (-6.2%) industries also contributed to the provincial decrease. A 2.6% gain in the food industry partly offset the overall decline.
Sales declined 1.3% in Quebec to $11.5 billion as a result of a 12.7% drop in production in the aerospace product and parts industry. Higher sales in the petroleum and coal products (+3.4%), food (+2.2%) and chemical (+5.2%) industries partly offset the decline in aerospace.
Sales decreases in Nova Scotia (-5.9%), Saskatchewan (-5.3%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (-7.5%) were related to lower sales in the non-durable goods industries.
Alberta was the only province to post an increase in April, with sales rising 2.3% to $5.9 billion. Sales in Alberta were at their highest level since October 2008. The advance in April was related to sales gains in the machinery (+16.7%) and fabricated metal product (+16.6%) industries.
Inventory levels continue to rise
Inventory levels increased 1.2% in April to $62.7 billion, their highest level since May 2009. The gain in April was led by a 3.3% increase in the primary metals industry, reflecting in part higher finished product inventories.
Petroleum and coal product inventories advanced 3.1% in April, led by higher prices.
Increased levels of inventories were also reported by manufacturers in the machinery (+2.5%) and aerospace products and parts (+3.4%) industries.
The inventory-to-sales ratio increased from 1.31 in March to 1.34 in April, bringing the ratio to the highest level since September 2010.
Unfilled orders up again
Unfilled orders rose for the fourth consecutive month, edging up 0.4% to $57.6 billion. Following a 9.6% increase in March, unfilled orders remained at their highest level since June 2009.
The rise in unfilled orders was largely driven by the railroad rolling stock (+25.3%), machinery (+4.5%) and fabricated metal product (+1.8%) industries. A 2.0% decline in the aerospace product and parts industry mostly offset these gains.
Excluding the aerospace industry, unfilled orders in the manufacturing sector rose 2.4% to $31.6 billion.
New orders declined 10.3% to $46.9 billion in April, reversing most of the 11.5% increase reported in March. Much of the decrease in new orders came from the aerospace industry.
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 May Monthly Survey of Manufacturing will be released on July 15.
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 Michael Schimpf (613-951-9832; michael.schimpf@statcan.gc.ca), Manufacturing and Energy Division.
- Date modified: