According to Statistics Canada, Canadian manufacturing sales increased 1.7 percent to $73.0 billion in January, mainly on higher sales in the motor vehicle industry group (+11.1 percent) as well as the petroleum and coal product subsector (+4.7 percent). Meanwhile, chemical product sales declined the most, down 7.4 percent to $5.0 billion in January.
Total inventories rose 1.2 percent to $121.2 billion in January, on higher raw material (+2.1%) and finished product (+1.6%) inventories while inventories of goods in process declined 0.6 percent.
From an industry perspective, inventories of miscellaneous products (+29.1 percent), aerospace products and parts (+5.3 percent), and food (+2.5 percent) increased the most, while the machinery subsector posted the largest decline (-2.1 percent). Total inventories in constant dollars increased 0.9 percent in January.
The inventory-to-sales ratio fell slightly from 1.67 in December to 1.66 in January. 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 rose 0.6 percent to $107.3 billion in January, on higher unfilled orders of aerospace products and parts (+2.2 percent). Meanwhile, unfilled orders in the primary metal subsector declined the most (-5.2 percent).
The capacity utilization rate (not seasonally adjusted) for the total manufacturing sector increased from 75.9 percent in December to 79.6 percent in January.
Capacity utilization rates increased in transportation equipment (+12.6 percentage points), primary metal (+4.7 percentage points), and petroleum and coal product (+3.8 percentage points) subsectors. Meanwhile, the capacity utilization rate of non-metallic minerals decreased 6.5 percentage points in January.