According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales rose 0.2 percent to $71.1 billion in January, on higher sales in 11 of the 21 subsectors, led by the transportation equipment (+4.3 percent) and chemical (+3.5 percent) subsectors. The aerospace product and parts industry group (-16.7 percent) posted the largest decline.
Total inventories decreased 0.2 percent to $122.1 billion in January, following a 1.4 percent decline in December, due to lower raw material inventories (-1.2 percent). Lower inventories of primary metals (-4.2 percent) and petroleum and coal (-4.5 percent) were mainly responsible for the decline.
The inventory-to-sales ratio was unchanged, at 1.72 in January. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
The total value of unfilled orders declined 1.3 percent to $104.2 billion in January, largely on a 2.2 percent decrease in unfilled orders of transportation equipment.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector increased from 75.1 percent in December to 77.1 percent in January, mainly on higher production.
Capacity utilization rates increased in the chemical (+7.5 percentage points) and transportation equipment (+3.7 percentage points) subsectors. The gains were partly offset by lower capacity utilization rates in the non-metallic mineral (-7.1 percentage points) and computer and electronic product (-6.1 percentage points) subsectors.