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Issue - January/February 2007
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Monthly shipments
The total value of goods produced and shipped by Canadian manufacturers fell 3.3% to $47.9 billion in September. Manufacturing shipments were 3.8% lower than in September 2005. Total shipments for the first three quarters of 2006 were only 0.02% above those for the same period last year.
Shipments by province
Manufacturing weakness is centred in Ontario (which accounts for half of all manufacturing shipments), Quebec and Atlantic Canada. On the other hand, manufacturing performance has been strong in Western Canada, particularly in Alberta where manufacturers have benefited from booming investment in the oil sands.
New & unfilled orders
Two very worrying trends can also be seen in the September results for Canada’s manufacturing industries. New orders fell 2.8% from August while unfilled orders were down by one per cent. On a year-over-year basis, new orders were down 4.4% while unfilled orders fell by 2.7 per cent. These trends only point to further weakness in manufacturing.
Shipments by sector: Sept. 2006 to Sept. 2007
The only sectors experiencing growth over the past year are food products, leather products, primary metals, electrical equipment and miscellaneous manufacturing, which includes such industries as medical devices and advanced instrumentation.
Inventory turnover
Along with weakening shipments performance, inventory turnover has been falling since 2004. A similar deteriorating trend is evident in terms of work-in-progress as a percentage of shipments. Both indicators point to slower flow, plus less efficient and less competitive operations, which is a major concern given the bottom line pressures manufacturers face.
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