OTTAWA, April 15 (Xinhua)-- Canada's manufacturing sales fell 1.6 percent to 55.4 billion Canadian dollars in February 2021 due to lower sales of transportation equipment, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

The fall, which came after an increase of 3.4 percent observed in January, was partially offset by higher sales in the petroleum and coal product, chemical, and wood product industries.

Since January, motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts manufacturers have faced a semiconductor shortage, which has led to production slowdowns or shutdowns at several auto assembly plants in the country.

After a 9.1 percent decrease in January, motor vehicle sales plunged 14.5 percent to 3.3 billion Canadian dollars in February, their lowest level since May 2020.

Year over year, sales of motor vehicles were down 31.2 percent.

The semiconductor supply issue also impacted production of motor vehicle parts, leading to a decrease of 10.9 percent in sales to 2.2 billion Canadian dollars in February, their lowest level since May 2020.

The tight supply of semiconductors also impacted plastics and rubber products manufacturing in February as a result of lower demand for plastic products from the auto industry.

These brought total manufacturing sales down 0.8 percent year over year in February.

In constant dollars, manufacturing sales declined 4 percent, indicating that higher prices mitigated a significantly lower volume of goods sold in February. Enditem

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