OTTAWA—August's shipments fell from last year but not as dramatically as July's tally, which showed a 10.3% decrease year-over-year. However, the overall picture has a bit of a rosier sheen: in July year-over-year shipments totalled  $4.37 billion, down from $4.57 billion in 2010—a 4.4% drop— compared to the 3.8% drop up to this August.

Shipments (in millions)	August 2011	August 2010	% change
August	$639.9	$666.2	-3.9%
Year to date (billions)	$5.0	$5.2	-3.8%