By Kelsey Johnson
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian manufacturing sales plummeted a record-breaking 28.5% in April as the coronavirus pandemic shutdown or limited businesses operations, Statistics Canada data showed on Monday.
The data was worse than anticipated. Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a decline of 20% in April. Statistics Canada revised its March figure down to a decline 9.8% from an initial drop of 9.2%.
All 21 industries monitored by Statistics Canada reported declines, while over four-fifths of manufacturers said the coronavirus pandemic had affected their operations. In volume terms, sales plunged a record 26.0%.
“This is a much deeper hole than initially expected, and could take even longer for the sector to dig out of than initially expected,” CIBC Senior Economist Royce Mendes said in a note.
Statscan said sales in the transportation equipment industry fell by 76.4% in April, the largest decrease on record. The slump was led by sharp declines in the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts industries, which plummeted 97.5% and 88.1% respectively.
Declines were also reported in the petroleum and coal product industries, which fell for the fourth consecutive month. Statscan said sales declined a record 46.4% in April as refineries curtailed production in response to weaker demand.
Food sales were also hit, dropping 12.8% in April, following a 9.9% gain in March, in part because of shutdowns at some meat processing plants after outbreaks of COVID-19 were reported among some plant employees.
The statistical agency’s current data series began in 1992.
(Reporting by Kelsey Johnson; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
