Manitoba manufacturers rolling along

New Statistics Canada figures issued Wednesday show manufacturing shipments were down right across the country between Jan. 1 and July 31. But Manitoba's decline of eight per cent was second smallest among the provinces, and less than half of Canada's decline of 20.5 per cent.

And that was in spite of it posting the country's biggest month-over-month decline in July, at 4.7 per cent ($1.17 billion worth of sales versus $1.23 billion in June). Canada as a whole, by comparison, posted an unexpected 5.5 per cent surge in shipments, thanks mainly to a double-digit spike in Ontario. Manitoba's chief statistician downplayed the significance of Manitoba's weak July performance, saying the year-to-date figures give a more accurate picture of what's going on. And they show Manitoba's manufacturing sector has been weathering the recession better than most in 2009, Wilf Falk said. "We're No. 2 in terms of performance behind P.E.I. (Prince Edward Island), which has a 5.2 per cent decline."

"Sure, we're suffering (in some segments of the sector) because we have customers in the U.S. and they're suffering," he said. "So there is some pain. But (overall) we're holding our own, I think."

That view is shared by Ron Koslowsky, vice-president of the Manitoba division of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. Koslowsky said despite weaker manufacturing sales in both June and July, economic signs still indicate the worst of the recession is over.

He said while there may still be a few more bumps ahead, "I think the overall trend is (sales) trending slowly upward and I wouldn't be surprised to see August or September's numbers bounce up from where they were."

The segments within the manufacturing sector that had a particularly tough July included transportation equipment (down 13.1 per cent from the previous month), fabricated metal products (off by 16.9 per cent) and primary metals (down by 8.1 per cent). The ones that did better included petroleum and coal (up 14.2 per cent), food (up 2.9 per cent) and plastics (up 2.7 per cent).

But even some of the ones that saw significant monthly declines posted better year-over-year (July-over-July) numbers.

For example, the transportation sector, which includes things like bus manufacturers and aerospace firms, had a monthly sales decline of 13.1 per cent, but a year-over-year decline of only 5.3 per cent.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

How the sectors fared

A breakdown of the month-over-month and year-over-year percentage changes for the 12 main manufacturing groups in Manitoba. The month-over-month figure shows how they fared compared to June, while the year-over-year shows how they did compared to a year earlier, before the recession:

Group M/M Y/Y

Food +2.9 -14.9

Paper products -6.6 -23.1

Printing +1.6 -26.2

Petroleum & coal +14.2 +66.0

Chemical products -4.9 -7.8

Plastics & rubber +2.7 -6.1

Wood products -9.7 -33.7

Primary metals -8.1 -38.8

Fabricated metals -16.9 -21.9

Machinery -2.9 -9.3

Electrical equipment -0.2 -6.3

Transportation -13.1 -5.3

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 17, 2009 B5