Manufacturing sales edge down 0.2% in September

Manufacturing sales fell 0.2% in September to $57.4 billion, following a 0.8% increase in August, reports Statistics Canada.

Sales were down in 10 of 21 industries, representing 62.2% of the Canadian manufacturing sector.

Sales in the petroleum and coal product and the motor vehicle parts industries accounted for the majority of the decrease in September. However, these decreases were largely offset by increases in the machinery and motor vehicle industries.

Constant dollar sales decreased 0.7%, indicating that a lower volume of products was sold in September.

Manufacturing sales declined 1.3% to $172.0 billion in the third quarter. In volume terms, manufacturing sales fell 1.0% in the third quarter, mostly due to lower volumes sold in the petroleum and coal product (-2.4%), food (-1.5%) and chemical (-1.9%) industries.

Manufacturing sales in Toronto were down 1.2% to $10.5 billion, mainly due to lower sales of motor vehicles (-3.7%) and motor vehicle parts (-5.0%) and partly offset by higher sales in the machinery industry.

Statistics Canada offers the following industry updates:

Automotive parts: Sales of motor vehicle parts fell 4.3% to $2.6 billion. Some parts plants in Canada were impacted by the United Auto Workers strike in the United States and had to scale back or stop production towards the end of the September.

Machinery: Sales in the machinery industry increased 5.5% to $3.7 billion. This was the largest monthly increase since May 2018. The gains in the machinery industry were widespread but more pronounced in the commercial and service machinery industry and the metalworking machinery industry. Some respondents indicated that they had completed large projects that had been in progress for months. Constant dollar sales in the machinery industry were up 5.4%.

Food: Food manufacturing was down 1.0% to $8.7 billion, primarily from lower sales of meat products. In constant dollar terms, sales decreased 0.5% in the food industry.

Other: Other industries that posted a decline were aerospace product and parts (-3.7%), electrical equipment, appliance and component (-6.8%) and chemicals (-1.4%).

Motor vehicle sales increased 2.9% to $5.5 billion in September, following a 3.1% gain in August. Sales typically fall in September but longer summer shutdowns that extended into August led to a gain in September. In constant dollars, sales volumes in the motor vehicle industry rose 2.7%.