Total manufacturing sales in constant dollars rose 1.5% to $671.9 billion in 2023, mainly on higher sales of transportation equipment and machinery. PHOTO courtesy Castrol.
Canadian manufacturing proved naysayers wrong in 2023, showing it still has capacity for growth. Canadian manufacturing sales and inventories posted moderate increases in 2023 compared with 2021 and 2022, according to Statistics Canada.
Despite the persistent supply chain issues in 2023, the average industrial product prices decreased 1.8% from 2022 to 2023, mainly driven by lower prices for energy and petroleum products (-14.5%). Meanwhile, certain industries, notably transportation, benefited from the global economy’s gradual recovery.
Following a 3.9% increase in 2021 and a 4.9% gain in 2022, total manufacturing sales in constant dollars rose 1.5% to $671.9 billion in 2023, mainly on higher sales of transportation equipment and machinery.
In current dollars, total manufacturing sales increased 1.1% to $862.8 billion in 2023, following a 17.9% increase in 2021 and an 18.1% gain in 2022. Sales rose in 9 of 21 subsectors in 2023, led by the transportation equipment (+27.0%) and food (+5.9%) subsectors. In contrast, the petroleum and coal subsector (-14.3%) posted the largest decrease.
Year-end inventory levels increased 1.2% to $123.1 billion in current dollars in 2023. The gain stemmed from higher inventories of durable goods (+2.3%), while inventories of non-durable goods edged down 0.4%.
