Wholesalers sold $56.5 billion worth of goods and services in July, up 0.3% from June and 3.3% higher than in July 2015. Excluding the automotive sector, wholesale sales were up 2.1% from July 2015.
In terms of volume, wholesale sales were unchanged in July from June.
Annualized wholesale sales were up in six provinces. British Columbia (+6.9%) led the way, followed by Quebec (+5.9%). Ontario’s annualized gain was 5.1%. Alberta experienced the largest loss (-7.3%), followed by Saskatchewan (-3.7%).
Wholesalers’ inventories in July were unchanged from June at $71.8 billion. This followed six monthly declines in the previous eight months. The value of inventories were down 0.2% from July 2015. Month-over-month decreases were recorded in four of the seven sectors, representing 57.0% of total wholesale inventories. The monthly decrease for the building materials and supplies industry was 0.1%, its sixth decline in the last seven months. The inventory-to-sales ratio was 1.27 in July, unchanged from June. The ratio is a measure of the time in months required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
Wholesale sales of building materials and supplies were $7.4 billion in July, down 2.0% from June and 1.3% lower than in July 2015. Inventories were valued at $11.7 billion, down 0.1% from June and 5.9% lower than in July 2015.
Wholesale sales of electrical, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning equipment and supplies stood at $2.4 billion in July, down 0.1% from June and 0.7% lower than in July 2015. Inventories were valued at $3.3 billion, up 0.7% from June but 1.6% lower than in July 2015.
Wholesale sales of metal service centres were $1.3 billion in July, down 0.1% from June and a decrease of 11.2% from July 2015. Inventories were valued at $2.9 billion, down 0.2% from June and a 17.1% decrease from July 2015.
Wholesale sales of lumber, millwork, hardware and other building supplies were $3.8 billion in July, down 3.8% from June but a 2.1% increase from July 2015. Inventories were valued at $5.5 billion, down 0.4% from June and a 1.3% decrease over July 2015.