Manufacturing sales edged up in June: Statistics Canada

Higher sales of machinery and transportation equipment products pushed manufacturing sales in Canada up 0.8% to $50.2 billion in June, following a 1.0% decline in May.

According to new figures released by Statistics Canada, the machinery industry gained 5.8 per cent at $2.7 billion, following five consecutive monthly declines, while the transportation equipment industry added 1.4 per cent to total $10.7 billion in June. “The gain in June was the largest since September 2015 and stemmed from higher sales in the commercial and service machinery, agricultural, construction and mining machinery, and industrial machinery industries,” StatsCan said. “Some types of machinery in these industries take many months to manufacture. As such, the advance in June partly reflected the delivery of orders placed several months ago.”

Manufacturing sales in June were up in four provinces, led by Ontario. Ontario rose 1.4% to $24.7 billion in June, while Alberta gained 1.8% to $5.2 billion. New Brunswick fell 4.1% to $1.3 billion.

Nationwide, new orders increased 1.3% to $51.7 billion, the third consecutive monthly gain. “The rise was mainly the result of higher new orders in the aerospace product and parts, fabricated metal product and chemical industries,” StatsCan said.