According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales decreased 0.9 percent to $50.0 billion in March, a second consecutive monthly decline. The decline in March mainly reflected lower sales of transportation equipment and primary metals.
Sales were down in 16 of 21 industries, representing 88.3 percent of Canadian manufacturing.
Transportation equipment sales fell 3.4 percent to $10.8 billion in March, mostly as a result of lower production of aerospace products and parts, motor vehicle parts, and other transportation equipment.
Production in the aerospace product and parts industry declined 7.0 percent to $1.6 billion in March, the third consecutive monthly decrease. The decline partly reflected an appreciation of the Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar. Much of the data in the aerospace industry are reported in US dollars.
In the motor vehicle parts industry, sales fell 4.1 percent to $2.5 billion in March. One factor behind the decrease in the seasonally adjusted sales was a slight decline in unadjusted sales for the industry. Normally, unadjusted sales increase in March, having risen an average of 11.9 percent over the last six years.
Other transportation equipment sales were down 31.8 percent to $207 million in March, reaching their lowest level since June 2010. Sales in this industry are volatile compared with sales in the transportation equipment industry as a whole.
Primary metal sales fell 5.6 percent to $3.5 billion in March, more than offsetting the gains registered in the previous three months.