Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, February 2018
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Released: 2018-04-17
Manufacturing sales increased 1.9% to $55.8 billion in February, following two consecutive monthly decreases. The growth was due mainly to higher sales in the transportation equipment industry.
Sales were up in 14 of 21 industries, representing 72.2% of the total Canadian manufacturing sector.
Chart 1
Manufacturing sales rise
In constant dollars, sales rose 2.0%, slightly more than the gain in current dollar sales, reflecting a slight decrease in prices of products sold by Canadian manufacturers in February.
Transportation equipment industry posts the largest gain
Sales in the transportation equipment industry grew 6.6% to $10.7 billion in February, following a 6.3% decline in January. This growth was due to advances in the motor vehicle (+8.9%) and motor vehicle parts (+4.8%) industries. These increases came on the heels of atypical assembly plant shutdowns in January. In constant dollars, sales volumes rose 9.3% in motor vehicle manufacturing and 4.8% in motor vehicle parts manufacturing in February.
Sales in the primary metal manufacturing industry rose 4.8% to $4.3 billion, following two straight monthly decreases. The increase in February was primarily the result of increased volumes. In constant dollars, sales in this industry were up 4.6%.
Sales were also up in the paper manufacturing (+3.2%) and computer and electronic product manufacturing (+5.7%) industries, following declines the previous month.
These increases were partially offset by a 2.1% decrease in the petroleum and coal products industry, whose sales totalled $5.8 billion, which was partly explained by the decrease in the price of refined products. After removing the effect of price changes, sales volumes of petroleum and coal products declined slightly by 0.7% in February.
Ontario and Quebec top sales increases
Sales rose in six provinces in February. However, Ontario and Quebec were the main contributors to this growth.
After falling 2.1% in January, sales in Ontario rose 3.0% to $25.9 billion in February. This growth was mainly on account of the motor vehicle (+9.0%) and motor vehicle parts (+4.9%) industries. These increases were partially offset by lower sales of chemical products (-3.0%), machinery (-2.9%) and petroleum and coal products (-2.7%).
In Quebec, sales rose 2.2% to $13.5 billion in February, following two consecutive monthly decreases. Increases were noted in 14 of 21 industries, mainly due to a 6.0% gain in sales in the primary metal manufacturing industry and a 2.5% increase in the transportation equipment manufacturing industry.
British Columbia posted the largest monthly decrease (-1.3%) and its fourth consecutive monthly decline. The decline in February was mostly due to lower sales in the electrical equipment, appliance and component industry.
Record high inventories
Total inventories rose 1.3% to a record high $77.4 billion in February. This was the fifth consecutive monthly gain in inventories, with 14 of 21 industries posting increases. The growth was mainly attributable to the transportation equipment (+3.8%), primary metal (+2.6%) and fabricated metal product (+3.1%) industries.
Chart 2
Record high inventories
The inventory-to-sales ratio edged down from 1.40 in January to 1.39 in February. The inventory-to-sales ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
Chart 3
The inventory-to-sales ratio declines
Unfilled orders increase
Unfilled orders rose 3.0% to $89.7 billion in February, a second consecutive monthly gain. The growth in unfilled orders was largely driven by the aerospace product and parts (+4.2%), fabricated metal product (+5.0%) and computer and electronic product (+4.1%) manufacturing industries.
Chart 4
Unfilled orders increase
New orders rose 5.0% to $58.4 billion in February, the third consecutive monthly increase. The transportation equipment and fabricated metal product industries were largely responsible for the gain in new orders nationally.
Note to readers
Monthly data in this release are seasonally adjusted and are expressed in current dollars unless otherwise specified.
For information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions. For information on trend-cycle data, see Trend-cycle estimates – Frequently asked questions.
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 and shipbuilding industries, the value of production is used instead of the value of sales of goods manufactured. The value of production is calculated by adjusting monthly sales of goods manufactured by the monthly change in inventories of goods in process and finished products manufactured. The value of production is used because of the extended period of time that it normally takes to manufacture products in these industries.
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.
Manufacturers reporting in US dollars
Some Canadian manufacturers report sales, inventories and unfilled orders in US dollars. These data are then converted to Canadian dollars as part of the data production cycle.
For sales, based on the assumption that they occur throughout the month, the average monthly exchange rate for the reference month (noon spot rate) established by the Bank of Canada is used for the conversion. The monthly average exchange rate is available in CANSIM table 176-0081. Inventories and unfilled orders are reported at the end of the reference period. For most respondents, the noon spot exchange rate on the last working day of the month is used for the conversion of these variables.
However, some manufacturers choose to report their data as of a day other than the last day of the month. In these instances, the noon spot exchange rate on the day selected by the respondent is used. Note that because of exchange rate fluctuations, the noon spot exchange rate on the day selected by the respondent can differ from both the exchange rate on the last working day of the month and the monthly average exchange rate. Noon spot exchange rate data are available in CANSIM table 176-0080.
Revision policy
Each month, the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing releases preliminary data for the reference month and revised data for the three previous months. Revisions are made to reflect new information provided by respondents and updates to administrative data.
Statistics Canada will publish revised monthly manufacturing data on May 16, in accordance with standard practices. Sales of goods manufactured, inventories and orders in current dollars will be revised back to January 2013 for unadjusted data, and to January 2011 for seasonally adjusted data.
Real-time CANSIM tables
Real-time CANSIM tables 304-8014, 304-8015 and 377-8009 will be updated on April 30. For more information, consult the document Real-time CANSIM tables.
Next release
Data from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing for March will be released on May 16.
Contact information
For more information, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca).
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Bechir Oueriemmi (613-951-7938; bechir.oueriemmi@canada.ca), Manufacturing and Wholesale Trade Division.
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