According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales increased 1.4 percent to $57.1 billion in May, following a 1.1 percent decline in April.
Sales rose in 14 of 21 industries, representing 64 percent of total manufacturing sales. The chemical, machinery, and wood product industries accounted for most of the gains in May. The transportation equipment industry posted the largest decline.
Machinery sales rose 8.9 percent to $3.3 billion, following three consecutive monthly declines. Higher sales of other general-purpose machinery as well as commercial and service machinery led the gains.
Sales in the transportation equipment industry declined 1.9 percent to $10.6 billion, following a 2.4 percent decrease in April. The declines in May were primarily due to lower sales of motor vehicles and motor vehicles parts. In particular, motor vehicle sales were down 6.6 percent, while sales of motor vehicles parts decreased 3.7 percent. Higher production of aerospace products and parts (+7.4 percent) partially offset the overall sales decline in transportation equipment.
Manufacturing inventories rose 0.4 percent to a record high $81.5 billion in May. Inventories were up in 9 of 21 industries, representing 58 percent of total manufacturing inventories. The increase was driven by the machinery industry (+4.1 percent) followed by transportation equipment (+1.7 percent). The gains were moderated by a 5.3 percent decline in petroleum and coal products.
Unfilled orders were up 3.5 percent to $92.8 billion in May, the fourth consecutive monthly gain. Higher levels of unfilled orders in the aerospace product and parts industry were mainly responsible for the overall rise in unfilled orders in May.
New orders were also up in May, increasing 4.9 percent to $60.2 billion. The gain was largely due to the aerospace product and parts industry. The overall increase was partially offset by a 13.3 percent decline in new orders for fabricated metal products.
The unadjusted manufacturing capacity utilization rate increased from 80.6 percent in April to 81.9 percent in May. In the machinery industry, the capacity utilization rate rose from 70.3 percent to 75.9 percent. This gain was consistent with higher production and sales in the industry. The rate also rose substantially in the fabricated metal products industry.