Sales of manufactured goods tumbled 8% in December of 2008, Statistics Canada said Monday. That’s the steepest monthly decline since the measurement began in 1992.

In its monthly survey of manufacturing, StatsCan said that both prices and volume were down by near-equal amounts last month.

The total value of manufacturing sales in December was $44.2 billion.

The petroleum and automobile industries had big falls, with declines of 18.4% and 14.2% respectively.

The metals sector also saw a precipitous fall in sales in the last month of 2008, down 14.4% to $3.5 billion.

StatsCan said sales fell in 20 of 21 manufacturing industries, with printing and related support activities recording the only increase, at 0.1%.

Manufacturers posted a 0.5% decline in current dollar sales to $604.5 billion in 2008, the lowest level since 2005, the government agency said.

Nine of 10 provinces posted lower manufacturing sales in December, ranging from a drop of 14.2% in both Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan to a 2.4% decrease in Manitoba.

In Ontario, sales declined 9.2%, to $20.3 billion. Decreases in transportation equipment, petroleum and coal products and primary metals accounted for nearly three-quarters of the overall provincial decline.

Sales in British Columbia decreased 8.7%. The drop in sales reflected declines in the wood products, primary metals and non-metallic mineral products industries.

Alberta’s manufacturing sales fell 8.5% in December, on the heels of a 5.7% drop in November. Key industries which were down over the month included petroleum products, chemical products and fabricated metal products.

Manufacturing sales in Quebec dropped by 5.3%, which was attributable to the petroleum and coal products industry and the primary metals industry.

IE