Manufacturing sales see slight increase

Manufacturing sales rose 0.2 percent to $71.1 billion in January, on higher sales in 11 of the 21 subsectors, led by the transportation equipment (+4.3 percent) and chemical (+3.5 percent) subsectors, says Statistics Canada. The aerospace product and parts industry group (-16.7 percent) posted the largest decline.

Manufacturing sales increased in seven provinces in January, led by Ontario and New Brunswick. Sales in Quebec posted the largest decline.

Sales in Ontario rose 3.8 percent to $32.2 billion in January, led by higher sales of motor vehicles (+21.8 percent) and chemical products (+10.1 percent). In New Brunswick, sales increased 4.2 percent to $2.1 billion in January, largely on higher sales of non-durable goods (+5.4 percent). Despite the increase during the month, total sales in New Brunswick were down 6.1 percent on a year-over-year basis in January. In Quebec, sales fell 4.2 percent from December to $17.3 billion in January, following two consecutive monthly increases.

Total inventories decreased 0.2 percent to $122.1 billion in January, following a 1.4 percent decline in December, due to lower raw material inventories (-1.2 percent). Lower inventories of primary metals (-4.2 percent) and petroleum and coal (-4.5 percent) were mainly responsible for the decline.

The inventory-to-sales ratio was unchanged, at 1.72 in January. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.