Wholesalers sold $55.9 billion worth of goods and services in May, up 1.8% from April and 3.6% higher than in May 2015. Excluding the automotive sector, wholesale sales were up 2.5% from May 2015.
In terms of volume, wholesale sales were up 1.5% in May from April.
Annualized wholesale sales were up in eight provinces. Prince Edward Island (+13.7%) led the way, followed by New Brunswick (+11.2%). Ontario’s annualized gain was 5.6% while Quebec reported a 7.1% year-over-year increase. Saskatchewan experienced the largest loss (-11.4%), followed by Alberta (-8.4%).
Wholesalers’ inventories in May decreased 0.1% from April to $72.0 billion. This was fifth straight monthly decline. The value of inventories were up 1.5% from May 2015. Month-over-month decreases were recorded in four of the seven sectors, representing 72.0% of total wholesale inventories. The monthly decrease for the building materials and supplies industry was 0.5%, its sixth decline in the last twelve months. The inventory-to-sales ratio was 1.29 in May, down from 1.31 April. 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 May, up 1.4% from April but 0.7% lower than in May 2015. Inventories were valued at $11.8 billion, down 0.5% from April and 6.5% lower than in May 2015.
Wholesale sales of electrical, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning equipment and supplies stood at $2.3 billion in May, up 0.9% from April but 1.5% lower than in May 2015. Inventories were valued at $3.3 billion, down 0.3% from April but 0.3% higher than in May 2015.
Wholesale sales of metal service centres were $1.3 billion in May, up 1.1% from April but a decrease of 10.6% from May 2015. Inventories were valued at $2.9 billion, down 1.4% from April and a 21.3% decrease from May 2015.
Wholesale sales of lumber, millwork, hardware and other building supplies were $3.8 billion in May, up 1.9% from April and a 3.6% increase from May 2015. Inventories were valued at $5.6 billion, down 0.1% from April and a 0.7% decrease over May 2015.