Manufacturing Strong North Of The Border

Canadian manufacturing posted its best month of 2006 in July, according to a survey released Thursday.

July’s Monthly Survey of Manufacturing (MSM) showed Canadian manufacturers’ shipped goods worth $49.9 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent from June. If price increases were taken into account, however, the overall shipment volume would have actually noted a decline of 0.6 percent.

Shipments increased in 11 of 21 manufacturing industries. Durable goods shipments fell slightly, while aerospace and auto parts had larger decreases. These drops were completely offset by increases in the automotive, machinery and computer and electronics industries.

The chemical manufacturing industry had its best month for shipments in 2006 and automotive products also had higher than normal shipments. Aerospace production dropped by 1.5 percent to $1.2 billion. Most other transportation industries had a shipment decline in July.

The manufacturing industry’s total inventories increased by $924 million to $63.5 billion in July after a small decline in June.

The fabricated metals and automotive industries increased new orders by 2.2 percent to $50.8 billion in July, while aerospace dropped after two strong months. Despite a drop in aerospace orders, the rest of the transportation industries were responsible for a 3.0 percent increase, to $10.1 billion.

Overall, the trend for new orders remained positive, increasing 0.4 percent.

Results By The Province
Quebec shipments dropped to $12.1 billion, mainly due to a decrease in shipments of transportation equipment and plastics and rubber products.

Canadian manufacturing shipping. To view chart larger, click here. Source: Statistics Canada

Manufacturing shipments in Ontario rose by 0.2 percent to $24.2 billion. The transportation industry, which accounts for nearly a third of Ontario's manufacturing output, increased to $7.8 billion.

Shipments of petroleum and coal products showed the strongest increase in the manufacturing industry in Alberta at 4.6 percent.

Manitoba noted a 10.1 percent increase in provincial manufacturing shipments to $1.3 billion.

New Brunswick's petroleum and coal industry accounted for over half of the total provincial shipments, which aided a 6.7 percent increase to $1.4 billion.

Newfoundland and Labrador's 8.7 percent decline in shipments was mainly due to a 27.2 percent decrease in food production. Shipments from British Columbia fell 3.8 percent to $3.4 billion, largely due to a 12.1 percent drop in paper production and a 4.6 percent decrease in wood products.

Labor Statistics
According to the Labor Force Survey for July, manufacturing continued to experience a downturn, as employment fell by an estimated 33,000, bringing total losses since the end of 2002 to 224,000, or 9.6 percent.