Wood Product Sales Lead Canadian Manufacturing Sales Higher in December

Statistic Canada is reporting that manufacturing sales rose 0.9% to $54.2 billion in December. Sales were up in 9 of 21 industries, led by the wood product, transportation equipment, and petroleum and coal product industries. Wood product sales increased 8.3% to a record high of $3.7 billion in December, driven by higher prices. Excluding November, sales in the wood product industry have been trending upward since May — they increased 14.6% in Q4 and were up by almost half (+48.1%) year over year. Exports of forestry products and building and packaging materials rose 5.0% in December and were up 16.9% year over year.