The Globe and Mail

Gil Mercado of Humble Manufacturing Company Ltd. in Burnaby, B.C., uses a multi-tool CNC punch press to cut sheet metal on Dec. 21. The manufacturing sector has taken a hard hit in recent years.

Sheet metal pieces await manufacturing at the Humble factory. Manufacturing output rebounded 0.6 per cent in September from a 0.2-per-cent decline in August.

Gil Mercado stacks completed sheets of sheet metal at the Burnaby factory. Statistics Canada will release updated GDP numbers Dec. 23.

Danny Retonel puts the finishing touches on pieces of cut sheet metal at the Burnaby factory. Analysts expect a 0.1% increase in Canadian gross domestic product for October.

Barrels of metal await recycling at the factory. Exports were weak in October because of the strong Canadian dollar and modest growth in advanced economies.

Tsezar Katsman welds components made out of sheet metal. High growth in the third quarter of the year was considered to be a catch-up period from disrupted supply chains in the second quarter.

Ron Walsh, president of Humble Manufacturing, inspects completed components at the factory. Manufacturing sales fell 0.8 per cent in October to $48.7-billion after three straight monthly increases, but were the second-highest of any month in 2011, surpassed only by September.

An employee uses a CNC brake forming machine to form a piece of sheet metal, a stack of unfinished pieces at his side. Lower sales were reported in October in 13 of 21 industries, about two-thirds of Canadian manufacturing.