Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, August 2025
Released: 2025-10-15
Total manufacturing sales fell 1.0% to $69.4 billion in August, on lower sales in 12 of the 21 subsectors, led by the transportation equipment (-5.7%) and food (-1.9%) subsectors. Meanwhile primary metal sales increased the most, up 3.6% to $5.8 billion in August. On a year-to-date basis, total manufacturing sales were down 1.0% in the first eight months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024.
On a constant dollar basis, sales declined 1.5% month over month in August 2025, while the Industrial Product Price Index rose 0.5%.
Chart 1
Manufacturing sales
Transportation equipment subsector leads the decline
Following a 7.7% increase in July, sales of transportation equipment declined 5.7% to $10.7 billion in August. This decrease was primarily driven by lower production of aerospace products and parts (-8.6%), as well as reduced sales of motor vehicle parts (-5.2%) and motor vehicles (-3.3%). The decline in the aerospace product and parts industry group came after a 6.9% gain in July, which marked the highest level on record. In the auto industry, the decline was largely due to lower than typical seasonal sales of motor vehicle parts as well as production slowdown at a major auto assembly plant in Ontario. Market uncertainty and the tariffs imposed by the United States have also contributed to irregular production schedules at some assembly plants. Exports of motor vehicles and parts fell by 4.7% in August. Total transportation equipment sales were 1.3% lower in August compared to the same month last year.
Sales in the food subsector declined 1.9% to $12.9 billion in August, marking the second consecutive monthly decrease. The decline was driven by reduced volumes as food sales in real terms were down 2.7%. The decline in food manufacturing was broad-based across several industry groups, with the most notable decreases observed in the grain and oilseed milling and the dairy product industry groups.
The declines in August were partly offset by a 3.6% increase in primary metals. This marks the second consecutive monthly increase in this subsector, with the largest growth in August reported in the alumina and aluminum production and processing industry group. Exports of unwrought aluminum and aluminum alloys jumped 45.1% in August.
Sales decrease in six provinces
Sales decreased in six provinces in August, led by Quebec and Ontario. Manitoba posted the largest gain.
Sales in Quebec fell 1.6% to $18.1 billion in August on lower sales in 15 of the 21 subsectors, led by the transportation equipment (-8.2%) and fabricated metal (-3.2%) subsectors. Within the transportation equipment subsector, lower production of aerospace products and parts (-10.2%) contributed the most to the decline. The declines in the 15 subsectors were partially offset by a 2.9% increase in sales of primary metals, driven mainly by higher sales in the alumina and aluminum production and processing industry group. Total sales in Quebec fell 0.6% on a year-over-year basis in August.
In Ontario, sales decreased 0.8% to $30.3 billion in August, almost entirely on reduced sales in the transportation equipment subsector (-5.3%) which includes the motor vehicle parts (-5.5%), aerospace product and parts (-17.0%), and motor vehicle (-2.6%) industry groups. Excluding the transportation equipment subsector, total sales were up 0.7% in August. Chemical product sales in Ontario (+11.4%) rose the most during the same period.
Total inventories increase
Total manufacturing inventories increased 0.3% to $121.6 billion in August, the highest level since November 2023. Higher inventories of finished products (+1.2%) were responsible for the increase in August 2025, while raw materials and goods in process inventory were unchanged. At the subsector level, the gains in total inventories were largely driven by the transportation equipment subsector (+1.9%).
Chart 2
Total inventories increase in August
The inventory-to-sales ratio increased from 1.73 in July to 1.75 in August. This ratio measures the time, in months, required to exhaust inventories if sales remain at their current level.
Chart 3
The inventory-to-sales ratio increases in August
Unfilled orders edged up
Total unfilled orders edged up 0.3% to $112.8 billion in August, mainly due to higher unfilled orders of aerospace products and parts (+0.7%).
Chart 4
Unfilled orders edge up in August
Capacity utilization rate increases
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector increased from 77.2% in July to 78.6% in August. The gains were most pronounced in the chemical (+6.7 percentage points) and transportation equipment (+3.7 percentage points) subsectors. The capacity utilization rate of petroleum and coal manufacturing declined 3.6 percentage points in August.
Chart 5
Capacity utilization rate increases in August
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
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 16-10-0014-01 and 16-10-0015-01 will be updated on October 27.
Next release
Data from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing for September will be released on November 14.
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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