Canadian manufacturing sales rose 1.3% month over month in May to a record C$78.1 billion, marking a fourth straight monthly gain, the country's statistical agency said on Wednesday.
Sales rose in 14 of 21 subsectors, led by monthly gains in transportation equipment, which was up 4.1% and chemicals, gaining 4.6%, according to Statistics Canada. The largest decline was in electrical equipment, appliances and components, which fell 5.8% on the month.
Bank of Montreal Capital Markets said before the release of the data that it expected manufacturing sales to advance 1.1%.
Manufacturing inventories reached a record C$125.9 billion, rising 0.5% monthly on increases in goods in process and raw materials, added StatsCan. The inventory-to-sales ratio, which measures the time in months that would be required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level, edged down to 1.61 from 1.62 in April.
Unfilled orders rose 6.7% monthly to a record C$131.5 billion, driven by a surge in transportation equipment orders, particularly in the aerospace sector, according to the Ottawa-based agency.
Year over year, manufacturing sales rose 13.4% in May.