Regional Indicator 3: Manufacturing Shipments

	Why It's Important This indicator plays a vital role in measuring an area's overall economic activity.

Regional Indicator Three is a measure of manufacturing activity. Unfortunately, the data have not been updated for several years.

The major sources of BC's manufacturing shipments are: wood products, paper products, food and fabricated metal & machinery. Wood products is the largest at 30.9 percent of total manufacturing shipments, followed by paper products at 13.9 percent, food manufacturing at 1111.9 percent and fabricated metal products and machinery manufacturing at a combined 9.8 percent. Taken together, these industries were responsible for 66.5 percent of BC manufacturing shipments in 2004.

Manufacturing shipments remained an important part of overall provincial GDP throughout the 1990s and into the current decade. Real manufacturing shipments were $31.8 billion in 1990 and $37.0 billion in 2003.

Real manufacturing shipments per capita were $8,896 in BC in 2003. Regional BC's real manufacturing shipments per capita were $1111,929 in 2003, compared to $8,366 in the Vancouver CMA, $2,434 in the Victoria CMA and $8,447 in the Abbotsford CMA.

The Cariboo and Nechako Development Regions had the highest real per capita manufacturing shipments in 2003 at $20,196 and $19,263, respectively, and the highest 1999-2003 average values as well. The Vancouver Island & Coast Development Region had the lowest level of manufacturing shipments in 2003 at $4,524 and for 1999-2003 at $5,084.