According to Statistics Canada, Canadian manufacturing sales increased 1.2 percent to $71.7 billion in November, mainly on higher sales in the chemical (+6.6 percent), primary metal (+4.0 percent) and machinery (+4.3 percent) subsectors. Sales in the motor vehicle industry group (-4.0 percent) declined the most. On a year-over-year basis, total sales were down 0.8 percent in November.
Total inventories rose 0.5 percent to $124.2 billion in November, the highest level on record, driven by higher goods in process (+1.1 percent) and finished product (+0.6 percent) inventories. Higher inventories of transportation equipment (+2.3 percent), machinery (+2.0 percent) and petroleum and coal (+2.1 percent) led the increase.
The inventory-to-sales ratio declined from 1.74 in October to 1.73 in November. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
The total value of unfilled orders declined 0.8 percent to $101.5 billion in November, primarily due to a 2.5 percent decline in unfilled orders of aerospace products and parts. As 2023 neared its end, many aerospace manufacturers were filling their backlog orders, resulting in lower total unfilled orders.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector increased from 77.6 percent in October to 79.5 percent in November, on higher production. Capacity utilization rates were up in the transportation equipment (+4.3 percentage points), chemical (+4.5 percentage points), and petroleum and coal (+2.8 percentage points) subsectors. These increases were partly offset by lower capacity utilization rates in the beverage and tobacco (-3.3 percentage points) and wood (-1.5 percentage points) subsectors.