Manufacturing sales in B.C. rose in January following flat sales in the last two months of 2009, according to Statistic Canada data released Tuesday.
Total sales rose 4.2% to $2.85 billion from $2.73 billion in December and $2.75 billion in November.
B.C. reported one of the strongest sales increases, after Nova Scotia's 5.5% increase and New Brunswick's 6.8% gain.
Nationally, manufacturing sales rose 2.4% to $44.6 billion, advancing for five consecutive months. Seventeen of the 21 sectors tracked by Statistics Canada reported gains, with the largest increases in the primary metals, petroleum and coal products sectors.
Inventory levels have remained unchanged since the fall after manufacturers shed $8.8 billion or 12.8% of their inventories between October 2008 and September 2009. Petroleum and coal product inventories, however, declined for the first time in four months, falling 2.1% in January despite rising prices.
The backlog of unfilled orders grew by 0.4% to $52.6 billion following a 2.2% gain in December. This was the first back-to-back increase in unfilled orders since November 2008.
New orders edged up 0.2% to $44.8 billion, the highest level since November 2008.