Manufacturing sales in Canada increased 1.7% in January 2025, totaling $73 billion, mainly driven by an 11.1% surge in motor vehicle sales to $5 billion, according to the news data from Statistics Canada. This increase followed a 4.7% decline in December and marked the largest month-over-month gain since March 2023. The recovery was supported by the resumption of operations after planned winter shutdowns and higher sales of electric vehicle models. Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector rose 4.7% to $8.7 billion, while chemical product sales dropped 7.4% to $5 billion.
Sales rose in eight provinces, with Ontario and Alberta leading the gains. Ontario's sales increased 1.7% to $31.1 billion, driven by a 12.6% increase in motor vehicle sales to $4.6 billion. Alberta’s sales grew 2.9% to $9 billion, mainly due to a 4.9% rise in petroleum and coal product sales. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest decline, with sales falling 26.9% to $329 million.
Total inventories rose 1.2% to $121.2 billion in January, while the inventory-to-sales ratio fell slightly from 1.67 in December to 1.66 in January. Unfilled orders increased 0.6% to $107.3 billion, supported by a 2.2% rise in aerospace product orders. Image: Capacity utilization rates in wood product
manufacturing in Canada / Statistics Canada
The capacity utilization rate in the wood product manufacturing sector climbed to 75.6% in January, up 4.2 percentage points from the previous month and 4.7 percentage points higher than January 2024. Despite the increase, the current rate remains 3.2 percentage points below the five-year average of 78.8%. The overall manufacturing sector's capacity utilization rate increased from 75.9% in December to 79.6% in January, with the transportation equipment subsector recording the largest improvement at 12.6 percentage points.
