Manufacturing sales down in October, StatsCan reports

Drop seen in seven of 21 tracked industries representing 40.5 per cent of the sector

OTTAWA— Canadian manufacturing sales fell 0.1 per cent in October to $58.2 billion (U.S.), hurt by a decline in the sales in the wood product and primary metal industries, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

Economists had previously expected an increase of 0.4 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

“Expectations were running high for factory sales, but the data proved disappointing,” CIBC World Markets econo- mist Royce Mendes wrote in a brief note. “However, the weakness wasn’t very concentrated, with only 7 of 21 industries declining,” he said. “Moreover, in volume terms, shipments actually rose 0.2 per cent.” Overall, sales were down in seven of 21 the industries tracked, representing 40.5 per cent of the manufacturing sector. Wood product manufacturers saw sales fall 7.5 per cent to $2.6 billion in October hurt by a continued decline in prices and timber supply shortages.

Meanwhile, primary metal manufacturing sales fell 3 per cent to $4.1 billion due to lower sales in the non-ferrous metal production and processing and the alumina and aluminum production and processing industries.

Partially offsetting the losses, food manufacturing industry sales rose 1.5 per cent to $8.7 billion, boosted by higher sales in the meat, other food manufacturing and animal food product industries.

Machinery sales rose 2.9 per cent, helped by higher sales in the agricultural, construction and mining machinery as well as the other general-purpose machinery industries. Sales of durable goods dropped by 0.9 per cent to $30 billion, while sales of nondurable goods rose by 0.7 per cent to $28.3 billion.

Inventory levels rose by 1 per cent to $85 billion in the month of October.

Regionally, manufacturing sales in dollar terms were down by the largest amount in Quebec with a 1.5 per cent drop to $13.9 billion.

New Brunswick saw manufacturing sales fall 12 per cent to $1.3 billion in October, the lowest level since November 2016. Meanwhile, British Columbia experienced a 0.9 per cent drop to $4.7 billion.

Sales rose 0.7 per cent in Ontario to $26.7 billion, boosted by a rise in the transportation equipment industry.