Canada’s manufacturing sector endured its second monthly decline in a row in March, Statistics Canada said today.

Manufacturing shipments dropped 2.4% to $49.7 billion in March. This followed a 0.7% decline in February. The two months of declines largely wiped out the 2.6% gain manufacturers registered in January.

March’s weakness in shipments was wide ranging, StatsCan said. Sixteen of 21 manufacturing industries reported declines.

The transportation equipment sector was the main drag in March. Excluding the sector, total manufacturing shipments were down 0.2%.

Despite the slump in shipments, the backlog of unfilled orders in March rose by 2.1% to a two-year high of $39 billion.

The March results were far worse than economists had been expecting. BMO Nesbitt Burns said its own below-consensus forecast called for a drop of 0.7%.

“This report plays right into a market looking for reasons to sell the [Canadian dollar] and to drive short-term interest rates lower,” said BMO Nesbitt Burns chief economist Sherry Cooper.