Canadian manufacturing shipments fell sharply in September, hurt by a sluggish transportation sector and falling prices for petroleum and coal products, Statistics Canada reported today.

StatsCan said Canadian manufacturers shipped goods worth $47.9 billion, down 3.3% from August and the lowest level since December 2004.

It was the second monthly decline in a row and the fastest rate of decline in shipments since August 2003.

After taking price fluctuations into account, the value of shipments was down just 1.2% to $44.1 billion, after levelling off in August. This indicates that most of September’s decline in shipment value was due to lower prices.

A decline was widely expected, given the weakness in exports in last week’s September international trade data. But the drop was much more severe than the 1% decline economists had predicted.

On a year-to-date basis, the volume of shipments fell 1% between January and September this year, compared with the same period last year.

Shipments were off in 13 of 21 manufacturing industries and 3 were unchanged in September. Durable goods shipments tumbled 2.5% to $25.6 billion in the wake of the transportation sector’s third monthly decrease in a row, and sixth in the last nine months.