Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, September 2025
Released: 2025-11-14
Manufacturing sales reached their highest level since February 2025, rising 3.3% month over month to $72.1 billion in September. Sales rose in 14 of the 21 subsectors, led by the transportation equipment (+9.2%) and petroleum and coal (+5.3%) subsectors. With the overall gain in September, total manufacturing sales on a year-over-year basis were up 2.7%.
In constant dollars, total sales rose 2.7% in September, while the Industrial Product Price Index was up 0.8%.
On a quarterly basis, sales increased 2.8% to $212.3 billion in the third quarter of 2025, the largest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2022. The petroleum and coal (+12.5%), primary metal (+6.4%) and transportation equipment (+3.2%) subsectors were the largest contributors to the increase in the third quarter of 2025.
Chart 1
Manufacturing sales
Transportation equipment sales drive monthly increase
Sales in the transportation equipment subsector rose 9.2% to $11.7 billion in September, marking the highest level since February 2025. Excluding the railroad rolling stock manufacturing industry, all transportation equipment industry groups posted gains in September, with motor vehicles (+11.8%) and aerospace products and parts (+13.0%) leading the increase. The rise in motor vehicle sales followed a 2.7% decline in August and was driven by higher sales at all auto assembly plants in Ontario, some of which resumed full production after summer shutdowns and retooling in July and August. In the aerospace product and parts industry, production reached a new record high in September ($2.9 billion), reflecting strong demand for aircraft and aircraft components. On a quarterly basis, total transportation equipment sales increased 3.2% to $33.9 billion in the third quarter of 2025, with motor vehicle manufacturing contributing the most to this gain.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector rose 5.3% to $7.6 billion in September, driven by both higher prices and increased volumes. Sales in constant dollars were up 1.4%. The increase was largely due to higher sales of petroleum products at certain refineries following maintenance shutdowns in August, as well as elevated prices for refined petroleum energy products. Total sales in current dollars in the subsector were up 7.5% year over year in September, while they rose 12.5% from the second to the third quarters of 2025.
Sales increase in nine provinces, led by Ontario and Quebec
Manufacturing sales rose in nine provinces in September, led by Ontario and Quebec. Sales in British Columbia declined the most.
In Ontario, manufacturing sales rose 3.4% to $31.5 billion in September, marking the strongest month-over-month increase since May 2023. The gain in September 2025 was driven by higher sales in 14 of the 21 subsectors, led by transportation equipment (+9.0%) and food (+2.2%). Within transportation equipment, notable increases were recorded in motor vehicles (+11.5%) and motor vehicle parts (+4.4%). Meanwhile, the gain in the food subsector was widespread across different industry groups, with particularly strong contributions coming from fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food manufacturing, meat product manufacturing, as well as grain and oilseed milling. On a quarterly basis, total manufacturing sales in Ontario rose 1.9% in the third quarter of 2025, with transportation equipment contributing the most to the overall increase.
In Quebec, manufacturing sales increased 2.6% to $18.7 billion in September, driven by higher production of aerospace products and parts (+14.9%) and increased sales of petroleum and coal products (+6.1%). Aerospace products and parts production reached a record high of $1.9 billion in September, supported by strong deliveries of business and commercial aircraft, along with higher sales of aerospace engines and parts. With the September increase, total manufacturing sales in Quebec were up 2.9% from one year earlier and rose 5.1% from the second to the third quarters of 2025.
Total inventories are unchanged
Total manufacturing inventories were unchanged at $122.2 billion in September. Increases in 11 of the 21 subsectors—most notably machinery (+2.3%), beverage and tobacco (+4.9%) and computer and electronics (+2.5%)—were offset by declines in others, including transportation equipment (-1.5%) and chemical (-2.3%). By inventory components, raw material inventories (+0.2%) edged up in September, while inventories of finished products (-0.1%) and goods in process (-0.1%) declined during the same period.
Chart 2
Total inventories are unchanged in September
The inventory-to-sales ratio declined from 1.75 in August to 1.70 in September. 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 decreases in September
Unfilled orders decline
Unfilled orders decreased 1.0% to $109.9 billion in September, the third consecutive monthly decline. The decline was almost entirely due to lower unfilled orders of transportation equipment (-1.4%) and fabricated metal products (-1.4%). On a quarterly basis, total unfilled orders were down 2.2% in the third quarter of 2025.
Chart 4
Unfilled orders decrease in September
Capacity utilization rate increases
The manufacturing sector's capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) rose from 78.2% in August to 80.7% in September. The most noticeable increases were in the transportation equipment (+8.7 percentage points), food (+3.7 percentage points) and machinery (+2.3 percentage points) subsectors. The capacity utilization rate of non-metallic mineral products fell 4.2 percentage points during the same period.
Chart 5
Capacity utilization rate increases in September
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.
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 November 26.
Next release
Data from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing for October will be released on December 15.
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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