(Ottawa) Manufacturing sector sales fell 2.1% to $69.9 billion in March, due to lower sales of petroleum and coal products and motor vehicles.
According to Statistics Canada, sales of petroleum and coal products fell 8.0% to 8 billion in March, while volumes fell 6.1%.
Sales of motor vehicles fell 7.9% to $4.6 billion in March, while sales of motor vehicle parts lost 2.8%.
Statistics Canada mentions that the retooling of several large automobile assembly plants in Ontario continued to have an impact on automobile manufacturing and contributed to the decline in sales for the month.
Meanwhile, machine sales increased by 2.9% to 4.5 billion in March. The increase came as sales of all seven machinery industry groups rose, led by machinery for commerce and the service industry which gained 41.6%.
Overall manufacturer sales in constant dollars fell 2% in March.