Statistics Canada has released its monthly survey of manufacturing which covered the month of April. Manufacturing sales rose 1.7% to $72.3 billion in April. Meanwhile, wood product sales saw the largest decrease.
Following seven consecutive monthly increases, wood product sales declined 6.0% to $4.5 billion in April, primarily on lower prices. Prices for softwood lumber were down 13.7%, while exports of lumber and other sawmill products decreased 2.6% in April. Wood product sales in constant dollars were down 1.3%.
Sales of paper products decreased 7.9% to $2.5 billion in April, following a 10.1% increase in March. Despite the decline in April, sales of paper products were up 4.1% compared with the same month a year earlier. Sales of paper in real terms fell 10.1% month over month in April.
Sales of paper and wood products were behind the decline in British Columbia. Following seven consecutive monthly increases, sales declined 2.9% to $5.8 billion in April. Despite the decrease in April, total sales in British Columbia stood 7.3% higher compared with the same month in 2021.
Sales in Montréal however, increased 3.9% to $7.9 billion in April. The gains were driven by a 72.8% increase in the production of aerospace product and parts a 21.5% increase in the sales of machinery and a 4.3% increase in computer and electronic products.
Source: Statistics Canada
