Canada manufacturing sales for October 2020

  • prior month 1.5% revised higher to 2.2%
  • total inventories fell -0.4%. The inventory sales ratio moved to 1.6 from 1.61 last month
  • unfilled orders were down -2.3%. Total new orders fell -3.9% with new orders declining in 12 of 21 industries
  • capacity utilization rates fell from 70.4% to 77.8%
  • the increase in October was almost entirely attributed to nondurable industries led by paper, petroleum and coal.
  • Year on year sales were down -5.2%
  • paper manufacturing rose 5.4%. The 2nd consecutive monthly increase. Capacity utilization rose 2.8% in the industry
  • petroleum and coal product industry increase 3.1% vs. a 0.2% decrease in September.
  • Motor vehicle sales rose 1.9% vs. -2.8% decline last month
  • primary metals increase 2.0%
  • other transportation equipment rose 24.4%
  • plastic consumer-products rose 2.2%
  • chemical products fell -2.5%
  • aerospace product and parts industry fell -5.9% which holiday 15.3% increase in September

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The chart below shows the ups and downs. The Covid spike sure messed up the scale. The decline to 0.3% this month was from a healthy revised higher 2.2% last month, but it looks like a small blip in the chart. In any case, the data this month is lower than expectations but the revision makes the lower number not so bad.

Canada manufacturing sales