According to Statistics Canada, Canadian manufacturing sales increased 0.2 percent to $72.9 billion in February, marking the fifth consecutive monthly gain and the highest level since September 2023. Sales rose in 11 of the 21 subsectors in February 2025, led by the primary metal (+8.3 percent) and chemical product (+6.7 percent) subsectors. Meanwhile, petroleum and coal product sales declined the most, down 5.2 percent in February.
Total inventories rose 0.8 percent to $122.0 billion in February, reaching the highest level since January 2024. All inventory components saw increases in February 2025, with raw materials (+0.9 percent) posting the largest gain, followed by finished products (+1.1 percent) and goods-in-process (+0.2 percent). Inventories in 12 of the 21 subsectors rose, led by the miscellaneous (+10.2 percent) and machinery (+1.9 percent) subsectors. The gain was partially offset by a 5.0% decline in inventories of petroleum and coal products.
The inventory-to-sales ratio increased from 1.66 in January to 1.67 in February. 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 decreased 0.5 percent to $107.1 billion in February, mainly on lower unfilled orders of aerospace products and parts (-0.5 percent) and other transportation equipment. Meanwhile, unfilled orders in the motor vehicle industry group (+2.7 percent) increased the most.
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector decreased from 78.7 percent in January to 77.3 percent in February.
Capacity utilization rates decreased in in the petroleum and coal (-7.9 percentage points), chemical (-2.4 percentage points) and fabricated metal (-7.9 percentage points) subsectors. Meanwhile, the capacity utilization rate of machinery manufacturing rose 3.8 percentage points in February.