According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales increased 1.9 percent to $55.8 billion in February, following two consecutive monthly decreases. The growth was due mainly to higher sales in the transportation equipment industry.
Sales were up in 14 of 21 industries, representing 72.2 percent of the total Canadian manufacturing sector.
In constant dollars, sales rose 2.0 percent, slightly more than the gain in current dollar sales, reflecting a slight decrease in prices of products sold by Canadian manufacturers in February.
Sales in the transportation equipment industry grew 6.6 percent to $10.7 billion in February, following a 6.3 percent decline in January. This growth was due to advances in the motor vehicle (+8.9 percent) and motor vehicle parts (+4.8 percent) industries. These increases came on the heels of atypical assembly plant shutdowns in January. In constant dollars, sales volumes rose 9.3 percent in motor vehicle manufacturing and 4.8 percent in motor vehicle parts manufacturing in February.
Sales in the primary metal manufacturing industry rose 4.8 percent to $4.3 billion, following two straight monthly decreases. The increase in February was primarily the result of increased volumes. In constant dollars, sales in this industry were up 4.6 percent.
Total inventories rose 1.3 percent to a record high $77.4 billion in February. This was the fifth consecutive monthly gain in inventories, with 14 of 21 industries posting increases. The growth was mainly attributable to the transportation equipment (+3.8 percent), primary metal (+2.6 percent) and fabricated metal product (+3.1 percent) industries.
The inventory-to-sales ratio edged down from 1.40 in January to 1.39 in February. 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.
Unfilled orders rose 3.0 percent to $89.7 billion in February, a second consecutive monthly gain. The growth in unfilled orders was largely driven by the aerospace product and parts (+4.2 percent), fabricated metal product (+5.0 percent) and computer and electronic product (+4.1 percent) manufacturing industries.
New orders rose 5.0 percent to $58.4 billion in February, the third consecutive monthly increase. The transportation equipment and fabricated metal product industries were largely responsible for the gain in new orders nationally.