According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales declined for the third consecutive month, down 1.3 percent to $56.4 billion in December on lower sales of petroleum and coal products. Excluding this industry, manufacturing sales declined 0.3 percent.
In the petroleum and coal product industry, sales declined for a second consecutive month, falling 10.4 percent to $5.2 billion, with a decrease in volumes (-5.2 percent) accounting for about half the decline.
Partly offsetting these declines were increases in the primary metal (+3.0 percent), aerospace product and parts (+4.2 percent) and non-metallic mineral product (+6.1 percent) industries.
Inventory levels increased 0.3 percent to $84.8 billion in December. Inventories rose in 13 of 21 industries. Higher inventories in the primary metal (+2.1 percent), machinery (+2.1 percent) and fabricated metal product (+2.5 percent) industries contributed to the overall gain. This increase was partly offset by lower inventories in the petroleum and coal product (-7.6 percent) and transportation equipment (-1.4 percent) industries. The inventory-to-sales ratio increased from 1.48 in November to 1.50 in December.
Unfilled orders rose 0.6 percent in December to $97.3 billion, a third consecutive monthly increase. The growth in unfilled orders was attributable to the aerospace product and parts (+0.5 percent), machinery (+2.2 percent) and fabricated metal product (+2.7 percent) industries.
The unadjusted capacity utilization rate for the manufacturing sector decreased from 79.4 percent in November to 75.9 percent in December. Declines were widespread and may reflect to some extent regular seasonal variations. The non-metallic mineral product as well as plastic and rubber products industries had the largest declines in December.