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Monthly Survey of Manufacturing
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Manufacturing sales decreased 0.9% in July to $44.3 billion. Despite the decrease, sales were 15.5% higher than their low reached in May 2009.
Constant dollar manufacturing sales declined 1.0% in July.
Sales fell in 12 of 21 industries, representing about half of total manufacturing sales.
Automobiles, paper, and furniture industries lead declines
Decreases in July were focused in three key industries, namely motor vehicles, paper products and furniture and related products.
Motor vehicle manufacturing sales fell 8.0% in July, reflecting larger-than-usual production declines at several plants during the month.
Note to readers
Statistics Canada is releasing revised monthly manufacturing data this month in accordance with standard practices. Sales of goods manufactured, inventories, and orders in current and constant dollars have been revised back to January 2007 for unadjusted data and to January 2004 for seasonally adjusted data.
The revisions were based on three sources. The monthly data were compared to the latest information available from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (ASML). Revisions were made based on new information from respondents, the availability of more up-to-date administrative data, and through reconciliation with the ASML data. The seasonal adjustment parameters were also reviewed.
Starting with this release, the constant dollar data are derived from the industrial product price indexes (IPPI), based on a 2002 basket of products. Previously, the IPPI was based on a 1997 basket.
The revised data are now available on CANSIM.
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.
Paper product manufacturers reported a 5.5% decline in sales in July, the first decrease in five months. Several manufacturers reported a downturn in demand compared with June.
Manufacturing sales dropped 10.7% for furniture and related products in July, following a 5.8% gain in June. Most of the changes in June and July were focused in Ontario and British Columbia. About half of furniture and related product manufacturing takes place in these two provinces.
In July, nine industries reported gains, including a 3.2% rise in beverage and tobacco product manufacturing and a 1.2% increase in food sales.
Provincial results mixed
Sales increased in five provinces in July. However, sizeable decreases in other provinces more than offset these gains.
Manufacturing sales fell 10.9% in Newfoundland and Labrador compared with June. The declines were mostly centred in the non-durable goods industries.
Sales in Saskatchewan fell for a third consecutive month, losing 3.8%. Durable goods industries were behind most of the decline in July.
Sales decreased 2.9% in both British Columbia and Quebec. Paper product manufacturers in the two provinces reported sizeable declines (-11.5% and -8.7% respectively). In Quebec, transportation equipment sales accounted for much of the decrease, falling 18.3% compared with June.
Manitoba posted the largest increase in July, up 1.7% on the strength of transportation equipment, food, and chemical product sales. Sales in Ontario were unchanged in July, while Alberta posted its first gain (+1.0%) in four months.
Inventory levels rise
Inventory levels rose 0.3% to $59.1 billion in July. In general, inventory levels have been declining since October 2008, although the downward trend has slowed since January 2010.
Most of the increase in July was centred in three industries, namely paper products (+2.7%), petroleum and coal products (+2.6%), and primary metals (+1.1%). These gains were largely offset by a 5.4% decrease in the inventory levels of aerospace product and parts manufacturers.
The inventory-to-sales ratio increased for a second month, reaching 1.33 in July. The ratio has stabilized in recent months, after rapidly declining between May 2009 and March 2010.
Backlog of orders falls in July
Unfilled orders declined 1.1% to $53.7 billion in July. Despite the decrease in July, the backlog of orders at manufacturing plants across Canada has been gradually increasing since November 2009.
Aerospace product and parts manufacturers reported a 1.7% decline in unfilled orders compared with June, accounting for much of the decrease in July. Miscellaneous manufacturers (+17.6%) and machinery manufacturers (+1.4%) offset some of the drop. This represented the sixth increase in seven months for the machinery industry.
New orders fell 3.9% in July to $43.6 billion, mainly reflecting large declines in the transportation equipment industry. Excluding the transportation equipment industry, new orders edged down 0.3% compared with June.
Available on CANSIM: tables 304-0014, 304-0015 and 377-0008.
Table 304-0014: Data on manufacturing sales, inventories and orders, Canada, by industry; monthly.
Table 304-0015: Data on manufacturing sales, provinces, by industry; monthly.
Table 377-0008: Data on constant dollar manufacturing sales, inventories and orders, Canada; monthly.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2101.
Data from the August Monthly Survey of Manufacturing will be released on October 14.
For a more detailed synopsis of the trends and indicators that affected manufacturers in 2009, consult the article "Manufacturing: The year 2009 in review," released in Analysis in Brief on June 24, 2010 (11-621-M, free).
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 1
| July 2009r | June 2010r | July 2010p | June to July 2010 | July 2009 to July 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | |||||
| $ millions | % change1 | ||||
| Manufacturing sales (current dollars) | 41,449 | 44,657 | 44,269 | -0.9 | 6.8 |
| Manufacturing sales (2002 constant dollars) | 38,566 | 41,618 | 41,207 | -1.0 | 6.8 |
| Manufacturing sales excluding motor vehicles, parts and accessories (current dollars) | 36,676 | 39,109 | 38,970 | -0.4 | 6.3 |
| Inventories | 61,292 | 58,919 | 59,079 | 0.3 | -3.6 |
| Unfilled orders | 57,210 | 54,329 | 53,708 | -1.1 | -6.1 |
| Unfilled orders excluding motor vehicles, parts and accessories | 56,548 | 53,658 | 53,013 | -1.2 | -6.3 |
| New orders | 39,510 | 45,405 | 43,648 | -3.9 | 10.5 |
| New orders excluding motor vehicles, parts and accessories | 34,763 | 39,838 | 38,325 | -3.8 | 10.2 |
| Inventory-to-sales ratio | 1.48 | 1.32 | 1.33 | ... | ... |
Table 2
| Major group of industries | July 2009r | June 2010r | July 2010p | June to July 2010 | July 2009 to July 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | |||||
| $ millions | % change1 | ||||
| Food manufacturing | 6,600 | 6,798 | 6,878 | 1.2 | 4.2 |
| Beverage and tobacco product | 866 | 898 | 926 | 3.2 | 7.0 |
| Textile mills | 126 | 124 | 122 | -1.4 | -2.6 |
| Textile product mills | 144 | 166 | 171 | 3.1 | 18.7 |
| Clothing manufacturing | 192 | 191 | 183 | -4.4 | -4.8 |
| Leather and allied product | 31 | 29 | 28 | -2.7 | -8.1 |
| Wood product | 1,397 | 1,584 | 1,521 | -4.0 | 8.9 |
| Paper manufacturing | 2,000 | 2,300 | 2,175 | -5.5 | 8.8 |
| Printing and related support activities | 754 | 768 | 760 | -1.0 | 0.8 |
| Petroleum and coal product | 4,804 | 5,270 | 5,289 | 0.4 | 10.1 |
| Chemical | 3,661 | 3,730 | 3,718 | -0.3 | 1.5 |
| Plastics and rubber product | 1,636 | 1,760 | 1,751 | -0.5 | 7.0 |
| Non-metallic mineral product | 987 | 1,154 | 1,140 | -1.2 | 15.6 |
| Primary metal | 2,590 | 3,472 | 3,481 | 0.3 | 34.4 |
| Fabricated metal product | 2,386 | 2,476 | 2,475 | -0.1 | 3.7 |
| Machinery | 2,184 | 2,380 | 2,409 | 1.2 | 10.3 |
| Computer and electronic product | 1,366 | 1,354 | 1,378 | 1.7 | 0.8 |
| Electrical equipment, appliance and component | 806 | 803 | 823 | 2.6 | 2.2 |
| Transportation equipment | 7,173 | 7,448 | 7,178 | -3.6 | 0.1 |
| Motor vehicle | 3,299 | 3,823 | 3,519 | -8.0 | 6.7 |
| Motor vehicle body and trailer | 217 | 271 | 299 | 10.4 | 37.8 |
| Motor vehicle parts | 1,475 | 1,726 | 1,781 | 3.2 | 20.7 |
| Aerospace product and parts | 1,744 | 1,224 | 1,207 | -1.4 | -30.8 |
| Railroad rolling stock | 94 | 94 | 84 | -10.7 | -10.1 |
| Ship and boat building | 111 | 108 | 89 | -17.5 | -20.1 |
| Furniture and related product | 892 | 945 | 844 | -10.7 | -5.4 |
| Miscellaneous manufacturing | 856 | 1,007 | 1,019 | 1.2 | 19.1 |
| Non-durable goods industries | 20,813 | 22,034 | 22,002 | -0.1 | 5.7 |
| Durable goods industries | 20,635 | 22,623 | 22,268 | -1.6 | 7.9 |
Table 3
| July 2009r | June 2010r | July 2010p | June to July 2010 | July 2009 to July 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | |||||
| $ millions | % change1 | ||||
| Canada | 41,449 | 44,657 | 44,269 | -0.9 | 6.8 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 411 | 459 | 409 | -10.9 | -0.3 |
| Prince Edward Island | 111 | 107 | 109 | 1.5 | -1.8 |
| Nova Scotia | 758 | 801 | 813 | 1.4 | 7.2 |
| New Brunswick | 1,285 | 1,454 | 1,472 | 1.3 | 14.6 |
| Quebec | 10,559 | 11,191 | 10,865 | -2.9 | 2.9 |
| Ontario | 19,199 | 20,638 | 20,648 | 0.0 | 7.5 |
| Manitoba | 1,216 | 1,204 | 1,225 | 1.7 | 0.7 |
| Saskatchewan | 970 | 913 | 879 | -3.8 | -9.4 |
| Alberta | 4,225 | 4,792 | 4,842 | 1.0 | 14.6 |
| British Columbia | 2,711 | 3,093 | 3,003 | -2.9 | 10.8 |
| Yukon | 2 | 3 | 2 | -10.1 | 2.7 |
| Northwest Territories and Nunavut | 1 | 1 | 1 | -6.7 | -7.7 |
