Canadian manufacturing sales fall sequentially in August

Canada’s manufacturing sales dropped in the month of August. On a month-on-month basis, manufacturing sales fell 2 percent, following three straight monthly rises. This leaves the level of manufacturing sales 6.6 percent below pre-pandemic levels.

The picture was less encouraging when controlling for price effects, with manufacturing shipment volumes fell 2.2 percent sequentially. The drop in sales was restricted to five of the 21 industries. As anticipated, it was mainly driven by a fall in transportation equipment sector, which fell 13.7 percent. This drop follows stronger-than-usual gains in vehicle sales in July. Shipments of plastics and rubber products also came in soft, falling 9.6 percent. Providing some counter were markedly solid sales of wood products and miscellaneous manufacturing products.

Inventories rose 0.2 percent, raising the inventory-sales ratio up to 1.65. Forward-looking indicators came in disappointing, with new orders falling 3.4 percent and unfilled orders down 1.7 percent.

Region wise, sales dropped in four provinces. In line with the sectoral picture, the headline fall was driven by Ontario, which saw a fall of 4.8 percent. Providing some offset were B.C. and Manitoba that recorded strong sales of 5.1 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.