Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose for a fourth consecutive month to hit a record high in May, helped by gains in the auto sector.
The agency says manufacturing sales rose 1.3% to $78.1 billion in May.
The increase came as sales of motor vehicles rose 11.8% to $4.6 billion in May, while the chemical subsector saw sales gain 4.6% to $5.9 billion.
In constant dollars, manufacturing sales rose 0.5% in May,
In a separate report, Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, were essentially unchanged at $90.0 billion in May.
In volume terms, wholesale sales, excluding those same items, fell 0.2% in May.
Statistics Canada has started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade but is excluding the data from its monthly analysis until there is enough historical data for comparison.