OTTAWA, (June 14, 2005) — Manufacturers continued to hold their own in April as they reported another healthy gain in unfilled orders, the third in four months, reports Statistics Canada.

At the all-industry level, manufacturing shipments have essentially plateaued since October 2004, despite monthly volatility in some industries.

Big ticket, durable goods industries contributed to a 1.1 percent boost in unfilled orders to $39.5 billion, following a 1.8 percent gain in March. Meanwhile, manufacturing shipments rose 0.9 percent to $50.2 billion in April, partly recovering the losses incurred in February and March.

The volatile transportation equipment sector (plus 5.2%) boosted shipments of durable goods 1.9 percent to $28.5 billion. In recent months, weakness in the motor vehicle and parts industries, plus the irregular production of aerospace products, contributed to a general decline in durable goods manufacturing. Meanwhile, shipments of non-durable goods slipped back 0.3 percent in April.

Manufacturers have remained resilient despite some less-than ideal economic influences, the agency reports. “Ongoing geopolitical unrest and concerns over U.S. domestic petroleum supplies once again sent the price of crude oil to record levels in early April,” the report states. “Rising input costs, increased global competition and an appreciated value of the Canadian dollar were some of the challenges manufacturers continued to face.”

Year-to-date shipments were up 4.8 percent compared to the first four months of 2004. Some of the big movers in 2005 included the price-driven petroleum industry ( plus 25.5%), fabricated metal products ( plus 12.8%) and machinery ( plus 13.7%).

Manufacturers operated at a record 87.0 percent of capacity in the first quarter of 2005, according to the most recent report on industrial capacity utilization rates. Rates increased significantly among various durable goods industries including computers, machinery and fabricated metal products.