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Monthly Survey of Manufacturing

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August 2009 (Previous release)

Manufacturing sales declined 2.1% to $40.9 billion in August following a 5.2% gain in July. The aerospace product and parts and motor vehicle industries were the major contributors to the decline in sales. Sales have been relatively level since February, after declining 20.4% between October 2008 and January 2009.

Constant dollar manufacturing sales fell 2.3% in August.

Manufacturing sales decline in August

Sales in 13 of 21 manufacturing industries decreased in August.

The aerospace product and parts and motor vehicle industries decline

Production in the aerospace product and parts industry fell 35.6% to $1.2 billion. Production in the industry has been volatile over the past several months. Excluding the decline in aerospace, manufacturing sales decreased by 0.6%.

Manufacturing sales in the motor vehicle industry fell 6.3% to $3.1 billion. The decline in August follows a 48.8% gain by the industry in July.

Note to readers

All data in this release are seasonally adjusted and are expressed in current dollars unless otherwise specified.

Preliminary data are provided for the current reference month. Revised data, based on late responses, are updated for the three previous 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.

Miscellaneous manufacturing (-10.5%) and chemical manufacturing (-2.5%) also reported decreases.

Sales in the petroleum and coal products industry rose 7.2%. The increase in sales was mostly driven by higher prices, as the Industrial Product Price Index for the industry was up 5.8%.

Sales vary by province

In Quebec, sales decreased 4.0% in August. A 29.0% drop in production in the aerospace product and parts industry largely contributed to the provincial decline. Other durable goods industries also reported declines, including computer and electronic products (-14.1%), miscellaneous manufacturing (-11.1%) and machinery manufacturing (-8.4%). Petroleum and coal products (+5.0%) and food manufacturing (+2.7%) partially offset the declines reported by durable goods industries.

Sales in Ontario declined 3.2% in August following an 11.6% gain in July. The decline in August mostly reflected a 7.4% decrease in sales in the motor vehicle industry and a 58.5% drop in aerospace products and parts manufacturing. A 14.3% drop in miscellaneous manufacturing also contributed to the provincial decline.

In Alberta, a 4.9% gain in sales largely reflected an increase in the petroleum and coal products industry. Machinery manufacturing (+11.6%) also contributed to the province's strength in August.

Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick were other provinces with sales increases. Sales declined in Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Manitoba. Sales in British Columbia remained unchanged from July.

Table 1

Manufacturing sales, provinces and territories
  July 2009r August 2009p July to August 2009
  Seasonally adjusted
  $ millions % change1
Canada 41,724 40,858 -2.1
Newfoundland and Labrador 416 458 10.2
Prince Edward Island 110 106 -3.7
Nova Scotia 758 731 -3.5
New Brunswick 1,268 1,291 1.8
Quebec 10,912 10,473 -4.0
Ontario 19,214 18,603 -3.2
Manitoba 1,188 1,171 -1.4
Saskatchewan 888 840 -5.4
Alberta 4,309 4,521 4.9
British Columbia 2,659 2,660 0.0
Yukon 2 2 -8.7
Northwest Territories and Nunavut 1 2 57.9
revised
preliminary
Percent change calculated at thousands of dollars.

Inventories continue to decline

Manufacturers reported a 0.7% decline in inventories compared with July, with levels falling to $61.0 billion. Inventories have been decreasing since January 2009.

Inventories of aerospace products and parts (-6.5%), fabricated metal products (-2.3%), machinery (-2.0%) and food (-1.9%) were responsible for most of the drop in manufacturing inventories.

Petroleum and coal products and primary metals were the main offsetting industries in August. Petroleum inventories rose 9.7%, reflecting both price and volume increases. Price increases led to the 2.7% rise in primary metals inventories.

Inventories continue to decline

The larger percentage decrease in sales relative to the decline in inventories explains the slight rise in the inventory-to-sales ratio from 1.47 to 1.49.

 The inventory-to-sales ratio rises slightly

Unfilled orders drop in August

The backlog of unfilled orders fell 4.2% to $54.3 billion in August. Unfilled orders were 23.7% lower than the record level of $71.2 billion posted in November 2008.

The decrease in August was driven by an 8.3% decline in the aerospace industry. Excluding aerospace products and parts, unfilled orders rose 0.3%.

 Unfilled orders drop in August

New orders increased 0.2% to $38.5 billion in August.

Available on CANSIM: tables 304-0014, 304-0015 and 377-0008.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2101.

Data from the September Monthly Survey of Manufacturing will be released on November 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 Michael Schimpf (613-951-9832; michael.schimpf@statcan.gc.ca), Manufacturing and Energy Division.

Table 2

Sales, inventories and orders in all manufacturing industries
  Sales Inventories Unfilled orders New orders Inventory-to-sales ratio
  Seasonally adjusted
  $ millions % change $ millions % change $ millions % change $ millions % change  
August 2008 51,326 -3.7 67,848 0.8 66,732 3.4 53,498 -1.1 1.32
September 2008 51,145 -0.4 67,470 -0.6 66,252 -0.7 50,665 -5.3 1.32
October 2008 50,925 -0.4 68,430 1.4 70,558 6.5 55,232 9.0 1.34
November 2008 47,331 -7.1 67,946 -0.7 71,238 1.0 48,011 -13.1 1.44
December 2008 43,077 -9.0 66,474 -2.2 69,665 -2.2 41,503 -13.6 1.54
January 2009 40,557 -5.8 66,529 0.1 66,659 -4.3 37,551 -9.5 1.64
February 2009 41,426 2.1 65,965 -0.8 66,556 -0.2 41,324 10.0 1.59
March 2009 40,422 -2.4 64,629 -2.0 67,032 0.7 40,898 -1.0 1.60
April 2009 40,275 -0.4 63,909 -1.1 63,089 -5.9 36,332 -11.2 1.59
May 2009 38,488 -4.4 62,792 -1.7 58,648 -7.0 34,047 -6.3 1.63
June 2009 39,650 3.0 62,758 -0.1 60,041 2.4 41,043 20.5 1.58
July 2009 41,724 5.2 61,448 -2.1 56,722 -5.5 38,406 -6.4 1.47
August 2009 40,858 -2.1 60,998 -0.7 54,345 -4.2 38,480 0.2 1.49

Table 3

Manufacturing industries except motor vehicle, parts and accessories
  Sales Inventories Unfilled orders New orders
  Seasonally adjusted
  $ millions % change $ millions % change $ millions % change $ millions % change
August 2008 45,502 -3.4 65,178 1.1 65,217 3.5 47,703 -0.5
September 2008 45,402 -0.2 64,920 -0.4 64,840 -0.6 45,024 -5.6
October 2008 45,419 0.0 65,746 1.3 69,363 7.0 49,942 10.9
November 2008 41,697 -8.2 65,276 -0.7 70,042 1.0 42,375 -15.2
December 2008 38,772 -7.0 64,159 -1.7 68,551 -2.1 37,281 -12.0
January 2009 37,807 -2.5 63,806 -0.5 65,612 -4.3 34,868 -6.5
February 2009 37,920 0.3 63,483 -0.5 65,472 -0.2 37,780 8.4
March 2009 36,509 -3.7 62,121 -2.1 66,101 1.0 37,138 -1.7
April 2009 35,997 -1.4 61,525 -1.0 62,212 -5.9 32,108 -13.5
May 2009 34,988 -2.8 60,375 -1.9 57,850 -7.0 30,626 -4.6
June 2009 36,248 3.6 60,474 0.2 59,336 2.6 37,734 23.2
July 2009 36,890 1.8 59,113 -2.2 56,050 -5.5 33,604 -10.9
August 2009 36,291 -1.6 58,681 -0.7 53,662 -4.3 33,903 0.9