Manufacturing sales decreased 2.7% to $41.4 billion in March, reversing February’s gain, Statistics Canada said Friday.

With this decrease, manufacturing sales have fallen almost 25% from their peak reached in July 2008, with most of the drop occurring between November 2008 and January 2009.

Durable goods industries such as aerospace parts and products, motor vehicle parts, and primary metal products were behind most of the losses in March, StatsCan said.

“Much of the decline in manufacturing sales was focused in Quebec, which accounted for slightly over half of the national decrease,” the government agency said.

Constant dollar manufacturing sales decreased 2.4% in March to $38.2 billion, indicating that most of the decline was due to a drop in the volume of sales.

Sales in 15 of 21 manufacturing industries decreased in March, accounting for about three-quarters of total sales.

Durable goods industries reported the strongest decreases in March, down 4.4% from February and the fourth decrease in five months. Aerospace products and parts production pulled down results, falling 32.4% compared with February.

Motor vehicle parts sales decreased 17.6% in March.
However, the drop in the motor vehicle parts industry was offset by a 22.2% gain in motor vehicle sales which followed sizeable gains in February.

Primary metal manufacturers reported a 7.6% decrease in March.

Non-durable good sales decreased 0.9% in March.

Inventory levels decreased 1.7% in March to $65.4 billion, the fourth decline in five months. A 2.5% reduction in durable goods inventories was behind most of the decreases.

The backlog of unfilled orders increased 1.5% to $67.8 billion in March.

IE