According to Statistics Canada, manufacturing sales rose 1.7 percent to $72.3 billion in April, mainly on higher sales in the petroleum and coal product (+3.7 percent), motor vehicle (+8.2 percent), and primary metal (+4.1 percent) as well as higher production of aerospace product and parts (+11.2 percent) industries. Meanwhile, wood product sales decreased the most (-6.0 percent).
Total inventory levels increased 2.3 percent to $111.8 billion in April, mainly on higher inventories of the machinery (+5.6 percent), chemical (+3.8 percent) and miscellaneous manufacturing (+12.6 percent) industries. Meanwhile, inventories of motor vehicles declined 10.0 percent in April.
The inventory-to-sales ratio increased from 1.54 in March to 1.55 in April. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
The total value of unfilled orders rose 2.9 percent to $103.9 billion in April, the sixth consecutive monthly increase and the highest level since March 2020. The gains were mainly attributable to higher unfilled orders in the aerospace product and parts (+5.0 percent), fabricated metal (5.9 percent), and machinery (+3.9 percent) industries. The total value of unfilled orders rose 22.0 percent on a year-over-year basis in April.
The total value of new orders marked a new record high, rising 3.1 percent to $75.2 billion in April mainly on higher new orders of aerospace product and parts, fabricated metals and motor vehicles.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector decreased from 81.9 percent in March to 79.9 percent in April on lower production.
The capacity utilization rates fell in 17 of 21 industries in April and were most noticeable in the transportation equipment (-2.7 percentage points), petroleum and coal product (-3.7 percentage points), machinery (-2.7 percentage points) and computer and electronic product (-6.0 percentage points) industries. The declines were partially offset by a higher production capacity rate in the non-metallic mineral product industry (+2.4 percentage points).