According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales rose 0.3 percent to $54.1 billion in October, following a 2.2 percent increase in September. Year over year, sales were down 5.2 percent.
Following two consecutive monthly gains, total inventories declined 0.4 percent to $86.5 billion in October. Total inventory levels in October were 1.3 percent below their pre-pandemic level in February and were down 1.1 percent year over year.
The inventory-to-sales ratio edged down from 1.61 in September to 1.60 in October. 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 were down 2.3 percent to $90.0 billion in October primarily on lower unfilled orders of aerospace product and parts (-3.2 percent), due to the cancellation or slowdown in orders. This drop brought total unfilled orders of aerospace product and parts to their lowest level since October 2018.
Following a 4.3 percent increase in September, total new orders declined 3.9 percent to $52.0 billion in October. New orders decreased in 12 of 21 industries, mainly attributable to the transportation equipment industry (-19.2 percent).
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector decreased from 78.4 percent in September to 77.8 percent in October.