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