A new report shows that the Canadian manufacturing sector has taken yet another hit, with sales plummeting across the country in March.

According to Statistics Canada’s monthly report, in March, Canadian manufacturing sales decreased by 2.1% to $69.9 billion, with sales of petroleum and coal products declining by 8.0% and motor vehicle sales declining by 7.9%.

Of all manufacturing subsectors, the machinery subsector experienced the largest increase in Canada, rising 2.9% to $4.5 billion.

Declining sales in Ontario and Alberta led to the decrease in manufacturing revenue.

In Ontario, sales declined by 2.4% to $30.7 billion in March, with a 7.9% decline in the sales of motor vehicles being primarily responsible for the decline last month. As for longer-term trends, quarterly, Ontario’s total vehicle sales have fallen by 0.5% to $93.9 billion in the first quarter of 2024.

Over in Alberta, where a 5.3% overall decline has been seen, the decline has mostly been fuelled by a drop in sales in the petroleum & coal and chemical product subsectors (-7.3% and -10.5%, respectively).

According to Statistics Canada, this is the third month in a row that sales in the manufacturing sector have declined

Moreover, quarterly, total manufacturing sales are down 0.9% in the first quarter. Besides motor vehicle sales and petroleum and coal sales, this has also been attributed to lower sales of transportation equipment (-3.0%) and primary metals (-4.4%).