According to Statistics Canada, Canadian manufacturing sales fell 1.2 percent to $58.0 billion in June, following a 1.6 percent increase in May. Sales were down in 16 of 21 industries, representing 68.0 percent of total manufacturing sales. The petroleum and coal product and food industries accounted for most of the decline in June. The primary metal industry posted the largest increase.
For the second quarter, manufacturing sales rose 1.7 percent to $174.5 billion. In volume terms, manufacturing sales increased 1.8 percent in the second quarter, mostly as a result of higher volumes sold in the petroleum and coal products industry (+6.8 percent) and transportation equipment (+2.3 percent) industry.
Inventory levels fell 1.5 percent to $87.8 billion in June, following six months of increases. Inventories were down in 15 of 21 industries, led by the transportation equipment (-4.5 percent), primary metal (-3.1 percent), petroleum and coal product (-2.1 percent) and paper (-3.4 percent) industries. These decreases were partly offset by a 2.9 percent increase in machinery inventories.
The inventory-to-sales ratio declined from 1.52 in May to 1.51 in June. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
Unfilled orders fell 1.2 percent to $99.2 billion in June. The decrease was mainly attributable to lower unfilled orders in the aerospace product and parts industry as well as the computer and electronic products industry. These declines were partially offset by an increase in unfilled orders in the chemical industry.
New orders fell 4.2 percent to $56.8 billion in June, following a 2.8 percent gain the previous month. This decrease was mostly due to lower new orders in the aerospace product and parts industry, and was partially offset by higher new orders in the primary metal industry.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the manufacturing sector declined 0.9 percentage points, from 82.1 percent in May to 81.2 percent in June.
The capacity utilization rate for the primary metal industry rose 2.7 percentage points to 79.4 percent in June. The increase was mostly attributable to increases in the alumina and aluminum production and processing, and to a lesser extent, in the iron and steel mills and ferro-alloy industries.