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Monthly Survey of Manufacturing
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In current dollars, Canadian manufacturers reported $52.5 billion in sales, up 2.1% from May and the fifth increase in six months.
In constant dollars, manufacturing sales increased 0.6% to $47.0 billion in June. Industrial prices for petroleum and coal, chemical products, wood products, and motor vehicles rose notably during the month.
Increases are broadly based
Increases were widespread as 14 of 21 manufacturing industries, representing 81% of total sales, reported gains.
The largest contribution to the gains in total manufacturing sales came from petroleum and coal product manufacturers. Sales increased by 6.4% in this industry, mirroring the 6.2% rise in prices observed for the month.
Note to readersAll data in this release are seasonally adjusted and are expressed in current dollars unless otherwise specified. Preliminary estimates are provided for the current reference month. Estimates, based on late responses, are revised for the three prior months. Non-durable goods industries include food, beverage and tobacco products, textile mills, textile product mills, clothing, leather and allied products, paper, printing and related support activities, petroleum and coal products, chemicals, and plastics and rubber products. Durable goods industries include wood products, non-metallic mineral products, primary metals, fabricated metal products, machinery, computer and electronic products, electrical equipment, appliances and components, transportation equipment, furniture and related products and miscellaneous manufacturing. Production-based industries For the aerospace industry and shipbuilding industries, the value of production is used instead of sales of goods manufactured. This value is calculated by adjusting monthly sales of goods manufactured by the monthly change in inventories of goods in process and finished products manufactured. Unfilled orders are a stock of orders that will contribute to future sales assuming that the orders are not cancelled. New orders are those received whether sold in the current month or not. New orders are measured as the sum of sales for the current month plus the change in unfilled orders from the previous month to the current month. |
Sales by primary metal manufacturers also contributed significantly to the rise in June, gaining 6.1% compared with May. Primary metal sales have increased for eight consecutive months due to strong international demand.
Motor vehicle manufacturers posted their fourth gain in six months as sales rose 4.2% in June. Despite the recent strengthening, motor vehicle manufacturing sales only reached $4.2 billion, well below the $5.0 billion monthly average for 2007.
For a second consecutive month, nine provinces reported gains in sales. Only British Columbia posted a decrease in manufacturing, with a 2.1% drop in sales compared with May.
The Atlantic provinces were particularly strong, with manufacturing sales up 5.2% in June, led by strong sales of non-durable goods. The Prairie provinces also continued to report gains above the national average, with a 3.5% increase.
Quebec manufacturing sales rose 2.2% for a fifth consecutive monthly gain. Sales in Ontario rose by 1.7% as the transportation industry regained some strength compared with May.
| Manufacturing sales, provinces and territories | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2008r | June 2008p | May to June 2008 | |||||
| Seasonally adjusted | |||||||
| $ millions | % change | ||||||
| Canada | 51,419 | 52,492 | 2.1 | ||||
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 651 | 673 | 3.4 | ||||
| Prince Edward Island | 104 | 119 | 14.2 | ||||
| Nova Scotia | 925 | 952 | 2.9 | ||||
| New Brunswick | 1,778 | 1,894 | 6.5 | ||||
| Quebec | 12,512 | 12,783 | 2.2 | ||||
| Ontario | 23,462 | 23,859 | 1.7 | ||||
| Manitoba | 1,343 | 1,369 | 2.0 | ||||
| Saskatchewan | 1,055 | 1,123 | 6.5 | ||||
| Alberta | 6,130 | 6,334 | 3.3 | ||||
| British Columbia | 3,452 | 3,379 | -2.1 | ||||
| Yukon | 3 | 3 | -9.0 | ||||
| Northwest Territories including Nunavut | 5 | 4 | -24.3 | ||||
| |||||||
Inventory levels increase for a fourth consecutive month
Inventories rose at about half of May's rate, increasing by 0.6% in June to $66.7 billion. Petroleum and coal product inventories accounted for about half of the increase in total manufacturing inventories, rising 4.9% due to higher prices.
Primary metal manufacturers reported a 2.6% increase in inventories to $7.3 billion, despite a drop in price. Primary metal manufacturers have reported rising inventory levels for four consecutive months. Even with this current run-up of inventories, levels were still lower than the $8.0 billion peak observed at the end of 2006.
The inventory-to-sales ratio dropped for a third consecutive month, decreasing to 1.27 after reaching a recent high of 1.34 in January 2008. June's ratio was the lowest level since April 2007.
The inventory-to-sales ratio is a measure of the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
Unfilled orders continue to advance
Unfilled orders continued to increase at manufacturing plants in June. Manufacturers reported a 1.5% increase in unfilled orders in June, as the backlog advanced to $64.2 billion. Unfilled orders, which provide an indication of future sales particularly for durable goods industries, have failed to increase only four times in the past two years.
After remaining stable in April and May, aerospace product and parts manufacturers reported a sizeable increase in unfilled orders in June. The backlog of orders rose 2.2% or $663 million, roughly two-thirds of the total gains. Fabricated metal product manufacturers accounted for much of the remaining increase with a 3.2% rise in unfilled orders.
Computer and electronic products was one of the few industries to report a drop in unfilled orders, decreasing by 3.8%.
New orders increased for the third time in four months, reaching $53.4 billion. New orders have been improving gradually since December 2007 after a period of weakness throughout most of 2007.
Available on CANSIM: tables 304-0014, 304-0015 and 377-0008.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2101.
Data from the July Monthly Survey of Manufacturing will be released on September 16.
For more information, or to order data, contact the dissemination officer (toll-free 1-866-873-8789; 613-951-9497; fax: 613-951-3877; manufact@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Elton Cryderman (613-951-4317; elton.cryderman@statcan.gc.ca), Manufacturing and Energy Division.
Table(s).
