Canadian manufacturing sales decline

October 15, 2009 - 0 comments

Ottawa -- A decline in sales of aerospace and motor vehicle parts led a decline of 2.1 percent in Canadian manufacturing sales in August, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

The agency said all manufacturing sales totaled $40.9 billion and sales in 13 of 21 sectors were down for the month.

Since the effects of the global recession intensified last October, manufacturing sales fell 20.4 percent between then and January, StatsCan said.

Production in the aerospace industry fell 35.6 percent to $1.2 billion, while sales in the motor vehicle industry fell 6.3 percent to $3.1 billion.

Sales in the petroleum and coal products industry rose 7.2 percent, which the agency said was mostly driven by higher prices.

Regionally, the province of Alberta fared best with a 4.9 percent gain in monthly sales based on the petroleum and coal products industry. Machinery manufacturing sales also jumped 11.6 percent in the province, the report said.