February manufacturing sales see slight gain

Canadian manufacturing sales increased 0.7 percent to $71.6 billion in February, on elevated sales in 13 of 21 subsectors, mainly driven by higher sales of petroleum and coal (+4.3 percent) as well as electrical equipment, appliance, and component (+12.6 percent) products, says Statistics Canada. Meanwhile, the chemical subsector (-5.5 percent) recorded the largest decline.

Manufacturing sales increased in five provinces in February, led by Quebec and followed by Alberta. Sales in Saskatchewan saw the largest decline.

Sales in Quebec increased three percent to $18 billion in February, primarily on higher sales of electrical equipment, appliances, and components (+26.3 percent) as well as production of aerospace products and parts (+5.9 percent). In Alberta, sales rose 4.1 percent to $8.8 billion in February, with the largest increases in the petroleum and coal (+9.5 percent) and chemical (+7.7 percent) subsectors. Following a 3.2 percent increase in Saskatchewan in January, sales in the province fell 12.8 percent to $1.9 billion in February, largely due to lower sales of chemical products and machinery. Higher sales of petroleum and coal products partly offset the decreases. The chemical subsector was the main driver of lower total sales in Regina (-16.1 percent) in February.

Total inventories decreased 0.7 percent to $120.6 billion in February, the third consecutive monthly decline. Lower goods in process (-1.8 percent) and raw materials (-0.5 percent) inventories largely contributed to the decrease.