Quebec-based Canam Group Inc. announced that its sales and profit plunged steeply in the fourth quarter compared from a year earlier, however, the order backlog improved.

The Montreal-area construction products maker says its profit was $5-million or 11 cents per share in the three months ended Dec. 31.

Its earnings were reported to be 63 per cent down compared from $13.7 million, or 23 cents a share, a year earlier. Also, its sales slipped by 35 per cent to $149.7. However, Canam's order backlog rose to $460 million from $444 million a year earlier.

Canam, widely known for its stadium roofs and other large projects in the U. S, won a contract last year to develop a complex steel-girder roof for the new Marlins baseball park in Florida.

Canam's president linked the fall in sales to a North American construction to slowdown and lower prices for raw materials.

It is spending $65 million to raise its stake in FabSouth, a Southern U. S. steel fabricator, to 80 per cent.

Canam's earnings for all 2009 were registered to be $20.1 million, or 45 cents a share, down from $48.4 million, or $1 a share, in 2008. Sales were $626 million, down from $796 million.