Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, March 2025
Released: 2025-05-15
Manufacturing sales fell for the second consecutive month, down 1.4% in March to $71.9 billion. Sales decreased in 13 of the 21 subsectors, led by the primary metal (-6.5%) and petroleum and coal product (-4.2%) subsectors. These declines were partly offset by an 11.9% increase in sales of furniture and related products. Year over year, total manufacturing sales were up 1.9% in March.
In constant dollars, total sales declined 1.1% in March, while the Industrial Product Price Index rose 0.5%.
On a quarterly basis, sales increased 1.6% to $217.9 billion in the first quarter, following a 1.1% rise in the fourth quarter of 2024. The transportation equipment (+5.0%) and primary metal (+8.5%) subsectors contributed the most to the gain in the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, sales of chemical products posted the largest quarterly decline, down 3.6% to $15.8 billion.
Chart 1
Manufacturing sales
Primary metal manufacturing drives monthly decline
Following four consecutive monthly increases, sales of primary metals fell 6.5% to $5.9 billion in March. In constant dollars, sales declined 7.4%, largely due to weaker-than-seasonal sales of non-ferrous metals as well as of alumina and aluminum products. Despite the monthly decline, primary metal sales were up 8.5% to $18.5 billion in the first quarter, making it the second-highest contributor to the quarterly gain.
Sales of petroleum and coal products declined 4.2% to $7.8 billion in March, marking a second consecutive monthly decrease. The decline was driven by lower prices, as constant dollar sales rose 1.0% during the same period. Prices for crude oil and energy products decreased in March amid rising trade tensions and global economic uncertainty. Year over year, sales of petroleum products were down 4.2% in March, though quarterly sales rose 2.1% in the first quarter.
Furniture and related product sales rose 11.9% to $1.4 billion in March, led by gains in the household and institutional furniture and kitchen cabinet industry group. Quarterly sales in the furniture and related product subsector edged up 0.6% in the first quarter.
Sales decrease in eight provinces, led by Ontario and Quebec
Manufacturing sales declined in eight provinces in March, with Ontario and Quebec experiencing the largest decreases. These decreases were partially offset by a gain in Manitoba.
In Ontario, sales declined 1.0% to $31.8 billion, driven by lower sales of chemical products (-7.3%) and primary metals (-6.0%). The resin, synthetic rubber, and artificial and synthetic fibres and filaments industry group was responsible for the decline in chemical product sales. Meanwhile, lower sales of non-ferrous metals drove the decline in the primary metal subsector. Despite the monthly decline, Ontario sales rose 2.8% in the first quarter and were up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis in March.
Sales in Quebec fell 1.6% to $18.7 billion in March. Declines were recorded in 12 of the 21 subsectors, led by primary metals (-5.4%) and transportation equipment (-5.5%). Within the transportation equipment subsector, lower production of aerospace products and parts (-3.9%) was mainly responsible for the decline. Total sales in Quebec rose 3.0% year over year in March and increased 1.8% in the first quarter.
In Manitoba, sales increased 2.9% to $2.4 billion in March, driven by higher sales in the transportation equipment subsector (+19.0%). Manitoba's total sales rose 3.9% year over year in March and were up 5.7% in the first quarter.
Inventories edge down
Following two consecutive monthly increases, total inventories declined 0.7% to $120.3 billion in March, on lower inventories in 13 of the 21 subsectors. Lower raw material (-1.4%) and goods in process (-0.9%) inventories were partially offset by higher inventories of finished products (+0.3%). The petroleum and coal product (-4.3%) and transportation equipment (-1.0%) subsectors posted the largest declines. Meanwhile, inventories of machinery (+1.0%) increased the most.
Chart 2
Inventories edge down in March
The inventory-to-sales ratio rose from 1.66 in February to 1.67 in March. 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 increases in March
Unfilled orders increase
Unfilled orders rose 1.4% to $109.4 billion in March, mainly due to increases in unfilled orders of ship and boat building. These gains were partially offset by a 2.3% decline in unfilled orders for aerospace products and parts. Excluding the transportation equipment subsector, total unfilled orders decreased 1.2%.
Chart 4
Unfilled orders increase in March
Capacity utilization rate increases
The manufacturing sector's capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) rose from 77.7% in February to 80.7% in March. The most notable gains occurred in the transportation equipment (+4.4 percentage points), petroleum and coal product (+4.4 percentage points) and food product (+2.3 percentage points) subsectors. The capacity utilization rate at primary metal manufacturing (-0.2 percentage points) posted a slight decline.
Chart 5
Capacity utilization rate increases in March
Focus on Canada and the United States
The United States is important for Canadian manufactured products, serving as Canada's largest export market. In 2024, Canadian manufacturers sold about half of their products to foreign customers, with roughly 80% of those exports going to the United States. The transportation equipment and food product subsectors were the top exporters. Notably, in 2024, Canadian transportation equipment manufacturers sold approximately two-thirds of their products to the United States, which accounted for roughly one-quarter of total exports of manufactured products to the United States.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
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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
Starting with the May 2025 release of March data, estimates of sales of goods manufactured, inventories and orders in tables 16-10-0047-01, 16-10-0048-01 and 16-10-0011-01 have been revised back to January 2022 for unadjusted data and back to January 2020 for seasonally adjusted data.
Real manufacturing sales, orders, inventory owned and inventory-to-sales ratio estimates in table 16-10-0013-01 have been revised back to January 2020.
Unadjusted estimates of capacity utilization rates in table 16-10-0012-01 have been revised back to January 2022.
Starting with the March reference month, as part of the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, data on cannabis are being released. The data series goes back to January 2022 and is included in tables 16-10-0047-01 and 16-10-0048-01.
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 using 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 May 23.
Next release
Data from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing for April will be released on June 13.
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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