Canada December chemical sales rise by 2.3% to C$3.78bn

18 February 2011 17:44  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--Canada’s chemical sales rose month on month by 2.3% to Canadian dollar (C$) 3.78bn ($3.86bn, €2.86bn) in December 2010, a government agency said on Friday.

The increase came after Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported a 1.0% sequential decrease in chemical sales from October to November.

Compared with December 2009, Canadian chemical sales rose by 3.9%, StatsCan said.

Canadian sales of plastics and rubber products rose by 1.5% to C$1.8bn in December 2010 from the previous month, and were up by 11.4% from December 2009.

Overall, Canadian manufacturing sales in December rose by 0.4% to C$45.4bn.

Gains in the primary metal, petroleum and coal product industries were offset by declines in aerospace products and parts, StatsCan said.

Canadian manufacturing sales had been moving upward at a slower rate in recent months, after increasing substantially between May 2009 and May 2010, the agency added.

Compared with December 2009, manufacturing sales were up by 6.2%.

New manufacturing orders in December totalled C$44.5bn, down by 1.9% from November, but up by 1.5% from December 2009.

Manufacturing inventory levels in December were C$61.0bn, almost unchanged from November, but up by 2.6% from December 2009.

The overall manufacturing inventory-to-sales ratio was 1.34 in December, compared with 1.35 in November 2010, and 1.39 in December 2009.

($1 = C$0.98, €0.74)

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