According to Statistics Canada, Canadian manufacturing sales rose 0.7 percent to $72.4 billion in August on higher sales in 9 of 21 subsectors, led by the petroleum and coal (+10.5 percent), food (+1.5 percent) and machinery (+2.4 percent) subsectors. This was the second consecutive monthly increase. Meanwhile, sales of fabricated metals (-3.5 percent) and miscellaneous (-9.4 percent) declined the most in August.
Total inventory levels edged down 0.1 percent to $122.2 billion in August, the lowest level since January 2023. The decline in August occurred because of lower raw materials (-0.6 percent) and finished products (-0.1 percent). Lower inventories of chemical products (-3.8 percent) and primary metals (-2.5 percent) were mainly responsible for the decline.
The inventory-to-sales ratio decreased from 1.70 in July to 1.69 in August. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
Unfilled orders rose 0.5 percent to $103.8 billion in August, largely on higher unfilled orders of aerospace products and parts (+2.7 percent). As recovery continues in the aerospace industry, driven by higher demand and market confidence, aerospace manufacturers face higher backlog orders which give them incentives to expand their manufacturing operations.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector increased from 77.6 percent in July to 80.2 percent in August, on higher production. The gains in the capacity utilization rates were noticeable in the transportation equipment (+4.8 percentage points), petroleum and coal (+2.0 percentage points), and machinery (+5.8 percentage points) subsectors. The capacity utilization rate of primary metal manufacturing declined 1.0 percentage point in August.