Total inventories for Canadian manufacturers increased 1.0% to $106.7 billion in February, mainly on higher inventories in the petroleum and coal product (+9.1%), primary metal (+3.5%), and motor vehicle (+12.8%) industries, Statistics Canada reports.
Higher prices of raw materials driven mainly by global supply chain disruptions have contributed to the growth in total inventories since January 2021. Year over year, total inventories rose 20.4% in February 2022, data gathered for Statistics Canada’s monthly Survey of Manufacturing shows.
“Despite the inventories accumulation, they did not outpace sales and consequently, the inventory-to-sales ratio declined from 1.63 in January to 1.58 in February,” the monthly Survey of Manufacturing states. This ratio measures the time, in months, that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
Unfilled orders, meanwhile, also rose. The total value of unfilled orders rose 0.9% to $100.9 billion in February, the highest level since April 2020, driven mainly by higher unfilled orders of aerospace product and parts (+2.1%) and plastic and rubber (+8.2%).
The total value of new orders increased for the fifth consecutive month, up 2.4% to $68.6 billion in February, led by the motor vehicle (+24.3%),. New orders of ship and boat building declined the most.
