NEWS

<p><br/></p><p>Manufacturing sales grew 0.3 per cent to $54.1 billion in October, led by the paper, and petroleum and coal industries, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.</p><p><br/></p><p>The agency said the rise followed a revised increase of 2.2 per cent for September compared with an earlier reading of 1.5 per cent.</p><p><br/></p><p>TD Bank economist Omar Abdelrahman said like most other areas of the economy, momentum in Canada’s manufacturing sector has been losing steam.</p><p><br/></p><p>“Importantly, this backward-looking release doesn’t fully capture the potential impacts of renewed restrictions domestically and abroad on demand for some manufacturing products,” Abdelrahman wrote in a report.</p><p><br/></p><p>“Against this backdrop, the near-term path for the sector is expected to remain bumpy and uneven until vaccine rollouts accelerate in the spring of 2021.”</p><p><br/></p><p>Vaccinations of health care workers and long-term care residents began this week, but broader vaccinations are not expected in the short term.</p><p><br/></p><p>The growth in manufacturing sales in October came as paper manufacturing sales climbed 5.4 per cent to $2.4 billion on higher sales in the pulp, paper and paperboard mills industries.</p><p><br/></p><p>Petroleum and coal product industry sales increased 3.1 per cent to $3.9 billion.</p><p><br/></p><p>Meanwhile, the aerospace product and parts industry fell 5.9 per cent to $1.6 billion in October, following a 15.3 per cent increase in September.</p><p><br/></p><p>Statistics Canada says aerospace manufacturers ramped down production due to the collapse in demand and uncertainty surrounding the length of global travel restrictions during the second wave of COVID-19.</p><p>Year over year, overall manufacturing sales were down 5.2 per cent.</p><p><br/></p><p>In constant dollars, Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in October were unchanged, indicating that the increase for the month was driven entirely by higher prices.</p><p></p>