The London area’s automotive industry is running in such high gear, even Canada’s lagging energy sector — a drag on much of the economy, with the collapse in oil prices — can’t slow it down.

Big Oil may be taking a beating, but Big Auto and its suppliers are bucking the fallout.

While manufacturing sales across Canada fell by 1.1 per cent in October to $50.4 billion, the third straight monthly decline due to the sluggish energy sector, the automotive industry — dominant in Southwestern Ontario — would have none of it, with industry sales rising 4.9 per cent to $5.3 billion.

That muscle is powering auto assembly and parts plants up and down the region’s Highway 401 corridor, with thousands of jobs, including at plants like Canada Tubeform in London, an auto parts supplier.

“We are seeing robust growth — double-digit growth, year-over-year,” Chris Campbell, the company’s chief executive, said Wednesday.

“A lot of car companies here are doing very well, production is really solid.”

Automotive production in Ontario remains strong, despite downturns elsewhere in the economy, with plants busy to meet demand.

They’ll assemble about 2.3 million vehicles by year-end, only a slight dip from 2.39 million made last year.

Even that decline is blamed not on reduced demand, but on retooling shutdowns at Chrysler’s minivan plant in Windsor and Ford’s Oakville plant.

The Chrysler plant is now forecasting it will hire more than 600 workers.

“Sales are at a record high this year,” said Carlos Gomes, an automotive analyst with Scotiabank.

The new Chrysler workers will join a growing Canadian automotive sector, as hiring at auto parts plants and assemblers will rise about four per cent, swelling the industry’s ranks to 111,000 workers, he added.

Not only that, but vehicle sales in the United States — the key market for the Canadian industry — are forecast to hit a record 17.5 million this year. That won’t slow anytime soon, said Gomes, saying “pent-up” demand will drive strong sales for several more years.

“The average age of vehicles in the U.S. is 11.5 years old, (and) about 40 per cent of vehicles will be replaced” over the next few years. ”That is why Ontario will lead the country in growth in 2015 — it will be neck and neck with B.C.,” he said.

Ontario manufacturers made 744.500 cars and 1.13 million trucks from January to October this year.

“It is a record year for sales and last year was a record, too — sales are on fire,” said Fares Bounajm, an economist with the Conference Board of Canada.

“It is definitely a big improvement from a few years ago.”

Still, Bounajm worries about long-term growth in the sector that’s lost production to Mexico and the southern U.S. Manufacturers have invested billions in new plants in the South, while investment in Canada and the northern U.S. has only maintained what those regions have.

“There is concern there will be an eventual decline in the industry” here, said Bounajm.

Statistics Canada this week reported manufacturing sales in Canada fell more than expected in October, fuelling concerns about the pace of economic growth in the final quarter of the year.

The drop in sales was due in part to the fallout of plunging oil prices, which have wiped out thousands of jobs in Canada and evaporated billions in revenue and revenue projections from government coffers. World oil prices have fallen more than 60 per cent from their peak above $100 US a barrel in the summer of 2014. But while manufacturing was down in five provinces in October in the latest report, sales in Ontario rose 0.6 per cent to $24.4 billion, thanks largely to its dominance in the auto industry.

Tubeform, which sells steel tubes for various uses, including vehicle headrest posts and instrument panel beams, recently had a 25,000-square-foot expansion and will hire about 10 workers for its staff of 55.

The London company sells to auto suppliers such as Brose in London, and to suppliers for Chrysler in Windsor, Honda in Alliston and Cami Automative in Ingersoll, to name a few.

norman.debono@sunmedia.ca

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

1.1 per cent: Decline in manufacturing sales in Canada in October, more than double what some expected.

5: Number of provinces where sales fell.

0.6 per cent: Sales increase in Ontario.

2.3 million: Vehicles expected to be built in Ontario in 2015, down only slightly from 2014.

17.5 million: Record U.S. vehicle sales forecast this year, a boon to the Canadian auto industry.

60+ per cent: Drop in world oil prices since summer 2014, slowing much of Canada’s economy.