Manufacturing sales of $71B in February missed estimates slightly, but were still up 3.6% sequentially - thanks to a partial recovery in vehicle production…

… which drove a 43% gain in motor vehicle sales, echoing February’s trade print and feeding through to wholesale activity - which increased 2% M/M.

The pickup in production also pushed capacity utilization higher, the first up month in the last five - but not enough to prevent a further build in backlogs…

… with unfilled orders rising ~2%. Taken together with a declining inventory-to-sales ratio and a drawdown in raw material balances…

… the data continues to point toward a supply-constrained environment.

About Bullpen: Bullpen Finance Inc. publishes content on Canadian markets and provides paid research coverage of select Canadian issuers. Bullpen is paid in cash by covered issuers, does not accept stock or options, does not hold positions in covered securities, and does not conduct investment banking business. Bullpen and LodeRock Advisors Inc. are affiliated; LodeRock provides investor relations services to issuers, some of whom are covered by Bullpen Research. When a post discusses a covered issuer, a specific disclosure appears at the top of the post. This post is published for general information purposes. It is not personalized investment advice and is not tailored to any individual reader’s circumstances. Bullpen is not a registered investment adviser or dealer. For full disclosures, including analyst certification, jurisdictional statements, and conflict of interest policies, please see our Legal & Disclosures section on our website.

You might be interested in…