Manufacturing sales in B.C. rose for a second consecutive month in February, rising 1.1%, according to Statistics Canada data released Friday.
B.C. manufacturing sales rose to $2.87 billion from $2.84 billion, benefiting from an increase in the sales of non-durable goods nationally.
Sales of non-durable goods, which includes food and beverage, tobacco, clothing, paper, petroleum, coal, chemical and plastic products, rose 0.4% on strong gains in beverage and tobacco sales (5.7%), clothing (13.4%), paper (3.2%), chemicals (4.3%) and plastics (4.4%).
Those gains offset a 0.3% decline in the sale of durable goods, although major B.C. sectors saw gains, including wood products (3.7%), fabricated metal products (1.5%), and non-metallic mineral products (0.6%).
For the year, B.C. manufacturing has risen 6.5% between February 2009 and February 2010. Sales of plastics and rubber products have risen 11.9%, while wood products have risen 8.3%.
Other sectors seeing increased sales include petroleum and coal products (21.3%), transportation equipment (19.4%), textile products (16%) and beverage and tobacco products (8%).