Monthly Survey of Manufacturing
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Manufacturing sales rose 2.7% to $46.7 billion in July. The increase follows three consecutive months of declines. More than three-quarters of the sales gains in July were in Ontario.
Constant dollar manufacturing sales were up 2.8%.
Higher sales were reported in 15 of 21 industries, representing 74.8% of total manufacturing. The petroleum and coal products, primary metal and fabricated metal product industries led the gains.
Chart description: Manufacturing sales rise in July
Wide ranging sales gains in July
Sales in the petroleum and coal products industry increased 6.1% in July to $6.2 billion. The gain mostly reflected higher volumes, as some refineries ramped up production following maintenance work and retooling in June.
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.
The primary metal industry reported a 7.6% increase in sales to $4.3 billion, as production rose at some plants following maintenance shutdowns in June. Sales in the industry have advanced steadily since June 2009. Sales in July were at their highest level since October 2008.
In the fabricated metal product industry, sales increased 8.7% in July to $2.9 billion. With this latest advance, sales reached 93.3% of their all-time peak recorded in July 2008.
The miscellaneous (+24.8%) and motor vehicle (+5.5%) industries also reported higher sales in July.
Production fell 17.5% to $946 million in the aerospace product and parts industry, offsetting a portion of the gains in manufacturing sales.
Manufacturing sales advance in most provinces
Manufacturing sales were up in seven provinces in July, with Ontario, Alberta and Quebec reporting the largest provincial sales increases in dollar terms.
In Ontario, sales rose 4.7% to $21.3 billion. The rise in July was the largest single-month increase since July 2009. The transportation equipment (+6.3%), miscellaneous manufacturing (+45.8%), and petroleum and coal product (+11.6%) industries posted the largest gains.
Sales of manufactured goods in Alberta rose 3.0% in July, reflecting advances in the petroleum and coal product, chemical and fabricated metal product industries. The gains were partially offset by a 2.5% decline in the machinery industry.
Quebec manufacturers reported a 0.5% increase in sales to $11.3 billion, reflecting gains in the primary metal, fabricated metal product, petroleum and coal product, and wood product industries. The gains were mostly offset by a decline in the aerospace product and parts industry.
Inventory levels edge down in July
Inventory levels edged down 0.1% in July, the first decline since September 2010. Lower inventory levels were reported by manufacturers in 13 of 21 industries.
The largest declines were reported in the petroleum and coal product, and aerospace product and parts industries, with decreases of 8.5% and 4.9% respectively.
However, the declines were offset by a 3.7% rise in machinery inventories and a 2.8% increase in primary metal inventories.
Chart description: Inventory levels edge downward July
The inventory-to-sales ratio decreased from 1.39 in June to 1.35 in July. This was the first decrease since January 2011.
Chart description: The inventory-to-sales ratio decreases
Unfilled orders advance for the seventh straight month
Unfilled orders rose 2.2% in July to $60.1 billion, the seventh consecutive monthly increase. This was also the highest level since April 2009.
Contributing to the increase in unfilled orders was a 7.6% rise in the machinery industry and a 1.8% advance by aerospace product and parts. A 4.1% gain in the fabricated metal product industry also contributed to the overall increase. Excluding the aerospace industry, unfilled orders rose 2.7% to $31.1 billion.
Chart description: Unfilled orders advance for seventh month
New orders increased 1.3% in July to $48.1 billion, led by gains in the primary metal, machinery, fabricated metal product, and petroleum and coal product industries. The increase was mostly offset by a decline in the aerospace product and parts 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 August Monthly Survey of Manufacturing will be released on October 14.
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.
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