According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales fell 1.3 percent to $56.2 billion in April, following two consecutive monthly increases.
Sales were down in 10 of 21 industries, representing 49.6 percent of the manufacturing sector. Sales in the petroleum and coal products and transportation equipment industries accounted for much of the decrease in April. Excluding these two industries, manufacturing sales rose 0.4 percent.
Sales of transportation equipment fell 2.3 percent to $10.9 billion in April, largely due to weaker sales of other transportation equipment (-55.8 percent) and lower production of aerospace products and parts (-6.4 percent).
In April, sales were up in 11 industries, with the largest increases in the primary metal manufacturing (+3.8 percent) and food products (+1.9 percent) industries.
Inventory levels rose 2.2 percent in April to $81.2 billion, a seventh consecutive monthly increase. The largest inventory increase occurred in the petroleum and coal products industry (+6.6 percent). Inventory levels also rose in the transportation equipment (+2.2 percent), machinery (+3.7 percent) and food products (+2.9 percent) industries.
The inventory-to-sales ratio rose from 1.40 in March to 1.44 in April. The inventory-to-sales ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
In April, unfilled orders increased 1.3 percent to $90.0 billion, a third consecutive monthly increase. Most of the gain came from a 1.8 percent increase in the aerospace product and parts industry. Unfilled orders were also up in the fabricated metal products industry.
New orders fell 1.6 percent to $57.4 billion in April. This decline was mainly the result of lower new orders in the petroleum and coal products and in the aerospace product and parts industries.