Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, July 2024
Released: 2024-09-16
Following a 1.7% decrease in June, Canadian manufacturing sales rose 1.4% to $71.0 billion in July, driven by higher sales of petroleum and coal (+6.7%) and chemical (+5.3%) products. Sales in the wood product subsector (-4.8%) declined the most. Despite the monthly increase, total sales on a year-over-year basis were down 1.1% in July.
Sales in constant dollars rose 0.9% in July, while the Industrial Product Price Index was unchanged and the Raw Materials Price Index rose 0.7%.
Chart 1
Manufacturing sales
Sales of petroleum and coal products lead the increase
Following a 0.4% increase in June, sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector rose 6.7% to $8.6 billion in July. Most refineries sold more petroleum products in July, attributable to higher prices and demand. Sales in constant dollars increased 4.5% month over month. Prices of refined petroleum energy products (including liquid biofuels) were up 2.2% in July, following two consecutive monthly declines. On a yearly basis, total sales of petroleum and coal products rose 13.1% in July.
Chemical product sales increased 5.3% to $5.6 billion in July, following two consecutive monthly declines. Higher sales of pharmaceutical and medicine products (+17.3%) were mainly responsible for the increase. Exports of pharmaceutical and medicinal products were up 4.6% in July. The gains were partially offset by a 6.3% decline in sales of basic chemicals, partly owing to a shutdown at a major basic chemical plant.
Following two consecutive monthly increases, sales of wood products fell 4.8% to $2.9 billion in July, the lowest sales figure since May 2023. Wood product sales in constant dollars declined 1.7% in July 2024. Sales in current dollars declined in all wood product industry groups, led by sawmills and wood preservation manufacturing (-11.6%). Lower demand and prices were responsible for the decline. Prices for softwood lumber (-7.8%) fell for the fourth consecutive month in July, marking their lowest level since June 2020.
Sales increase in seven provinces
Manufacturing sales increased in seven provinces in July, led by Saskatchewan (+28.0%) and Quebec (+1.9%). Ontario posted the largest decline (-0.6%).
Sales in Saskatchewan increased 28.0% to $2.1 billion in July, largely on higher sales of food (+55.0%) and petroleum and coal products. The gain in the food product subsector was mainly attributable to the grain and oilseed milling industry group, their sales rising 74.9% in July, following a 36.3% decline in June. Harvesting season, availability of grains for processing as well as transportation are often the drivers of volatility in this industry group. The prices of grain and oilseed products increased 1.8% in July.
In Quebec, sales rose 1.9% to $18.4 billion in July, mainly on higher sales of heavy-duty trucks as well as increased sales in fabricated metal products (+11.9%). Year over year, total sales in Quebec were up 3.2% in July. The motor vehicle industry group also contributed to higher sales in Montréal (+5.4%) in July.
In Ontario, sales decreased 0.6% to $30.4 billion in July, the second consecutive monthly decline, mainly on lower sales of motor vehicles (-4.7%) and food products (-2.7%). Production of motor vehicles in July was affected by planned summer shutdowns at several auto assembly plants. Sales of motor vehicle parts also decreased in July, posting a 0.9% decline to $2.5 billion. Exports of motor vehicles and parts fell 6.3% in July.
Total inventories increase
Total inventory levels increased 0.9% to $122.5 billion in July, on higher inventories in 11 of 21 subsectors. Higher goods in process (+2.9%) and finished product (+0.7%) inventories were partially offset by lower raw materials (-0.2%). At the industry level, inventories of transportation equipment (+3.6%) and chemical products (+4.4%) increased the most. On a year-over-year basis, total inventories were up 0.9% in July.
Chart 2
Inventory levels increase
The inventory-to-sales ratio held steady in July, remaining at 1.73. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
Chart 3
The inventory-to-sales ratio is unchanged
Unfilled orders increase
Total unfilled orders increased 0.6% to $105.8 billion in July, following a 0.9% decline in June. In July, higher unfilled orders of aerospace products and parts (+1.6%) were largely responsible for the gain, while the computer and electronic product subsector (-5.9%) posted the largest decline.
Chart 4
Unfilled orders increase in July
Capacity utilization rate decreases
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector decreased from 80.2% in June to 78.7% in July. The capacity utilization rate declined in the transportation equipment (-7.4 percentage points), wood (-5.4 percentage points) and chemical (-4.0 percentage points) product subsectors. The capacity utilization rate in the petroleum and coal subsector increased 2.9 percentage points in July, partially offsetting the declines.
Chart 5
The capacity utilization rate decreases in July
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Sustainable development goals
On January 1, 2016, the world officially began implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—the United Nations' transformative plan of action that addresses urgent global challenges over the following 15 years. The plan is based on 17 specific sustainable development goals.
The Monthly Survey of Manufacturing is an example of how Statistics Canada supports the reporting on the global sustainable development goals. This release will be used to help measure the following goal:
Note to readers
Monthly data in this release are seasonally adjusted and are expressed in current dollars, unless otherwise specified.
Seasonally adjusted data are data that have been modified to eliminate the effect of seasonal and calendar influences to allow for more meaningful comparisons of economic conditions from period to period. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Trend-cycle estimates are included in selected charts as a complement to the seasonally adjusted series. These data represent a smoothed version of the seasonally adjusted time series and provide information on longer-term movements, including changes in direction underlying the series. For information on trend-cycle data, see Trend-cycle estimates – Frequently asked questions.
Both seasonally adjusted data and trend-cycle estimates are subject to revision as additional observations become available. These revisions could be large and could even lead to a reversal of movement, especially for reference months near the end of the series or during periods of economic disruption.
Non-durable goods industries include food; beverage and tobacco products; textile mills; textile product mills; apparel; 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 and shipbuilding industry groups, the value of production is used instead of the value of sales of goods manufactured. The value of production is calculated by adjusting monthly sales of goods manufactured by the monthly change in inventories of goods in process and finished products manufactured. The value of production is used because of the extended period of time that it normally takes to manufacture products in these industries.
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.
Manufacturers reporting sales, inventories and unfilled orders in US dollars
Some Canadian manufacturers report sales, inventories and unfilled orders in US dollars. These data are then converted to Canadian dollars as part of the data production cycle.
For sales, based on the assumption that they occur throughout the month, the average monthly exchange rate for the reference month established by the Bank of Canada is used for the conversion. The monthly average exchange rate is available in table 33-10-0163-01. Inventories and unfilled orders are reported at the end of the reference period. For most respondents, the daily average exchange rate on the last working day of the month is used for the conversion of these variables.
However, some manufacturers choose to report their data as of a day other than the last working day of the month. In these instances, the daily average exchange rate on the day selected by the respondent is used. Note that because of exchange rate fluctuations, the daily average exchange rate on the day selected by the respondent can differ from both the exchange rate on the last working day of the month and the monthly average exchange rate. Daily average exchange rate data are available in table 33-10-0036-01.
Revision policy
Each month, the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing releases preliminary data for the reference month and revised data for the previous three months. Revisions are made to reflect new information provided by respondents and updates to administrative data.
Once a year, a revision project is undertaken to revise multiple years of data.
Real-time data tables
Real-time data tables 16-10-0118-01, 16-10-0119-01, 16-10-0014-01 and 16-10-0015-01 will be updated on September 23.
Next release
Data from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing for August will be released on October 16.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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