Statistics Canada recently released its numbers for June on the state of the manufacturing industry. While there are some negative-looking numbers on the outset, upon closer inspection there are positive signs for the metalworking industry.
The numbers are slightly misleading at first glance. Overall, the industry took a small hit, dropping 0.4% to $48.9 billion in sales. However, this dip was mostly caused by a 10.6% decline in the sales of petroleum and coal.
In fact, the manufacturing and metalworking industries showed improvement and actually helped buoy the numbers from being even worse.
Sales of transportation equipment were up by 1.7% bringing in a total $9.2 billion – the highest levels in nearly five years.
Motor vehicles also played a role in keeping the poor petroleum numbers from dragging everything into the basement. Vehicle sales were up 0.7% and auto parts sales were up 1.1% marking the 11th increase in the past 12 months – surely a positive sign for the industry.
Interestingly, auto sales spiked over 40% versus June of last year because of the Japanese tsunami devastating the supply chain. So while this looks exceptional, it really marks more of a return to normalcy than a dramatic increase in demand.
Furthermore, sales of machinery and aerospace products grew 5.2% and 2.2% respectively.
Ship and boat building is also on the rise, checking in with an 11.9% increase versus last month and a 26.9% percent jump compared to June of last year. With the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) awarding two massive contracts last year the numbers for shipbuilding should remain strong in the coming years.
There were some negatives in the report, but for the most part the metalworking industry seemed to avoid the declining numbers. Overall sales in Alberta dropped, but again, mostly due to petroleum prices.
New Brunswick also saw a fairly heavy dro in sales, going down 12.6% to $1.5 billion – although the dro was almost solely because of a decline in durable goods, meaning metal-based industries were less affected.
Recent comments by Pierre Cléroux, Vice President and Chief Economist, BDC suggested that Canada’s manufacturing sector was improving but should take caution as there was still a way to go before reaching pre-recession levels.
The numbers from Stats Can would tend to back that up as growth was fairly minor is most industries, but for now it seems as though the metalworking industry can remain optimistic about the growth it has seen.
For a full copy of the Stats Can report click here.
