Statistics Canada reported Friday that manufacturing sales declined 0.5 percent to $48.2 billion in June, the fourth decrease in six months. Manufacturing sales have been on a slow decline since the spring of 2012.
The decline in June mostly reflected lower sales in the miscellaneous manufacturing, fabricated metal product and wood product industries. Higher sales in the petroleum and coal product industry offset a portion of the decreases. Sales fell in 16 of 21 industries, representing about 56 percent of the manufacturing sector.
Sales in the fabricated metal product industry declined 6.5 percent to $2.6 billion. The decline was partly attributable to lower sales in the architectural and structural metals sub-industry.
Transportation equipment sales rose 0.7 percent to $8.6 billion in June. The rise was caused by higher production in the aerospace product and parts sub-industry.
Inventories edged down 0.2 percent to $68.6 billion in June. The decline reflected lower inventories of transportation equipment (-2.5 percent) and primary metals (-3.7 percent).
However, these declines were almost entirely offset by higher inventories in the petroleum and coal product (+4.3 percent) and the wood product (+3 percent) industries.
