KUCHING: Manufacturing sector sales grew by 3 per cent year-on-year, reaching RM161.3 billion in October this year.
Department of Statistics, Malaysia (DOSM), Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the sector continued its positive momentum, with growth slightly surpassing the 2.9 per cent increase observed in the previous month.
He noted that the growth was primarily fueled by a robust 11.2 per cent increase in the food, beverages and tobacco sub-sector, following a 5.6 per cent rise in September 2024.
“The growth was further supported by the increase in the electrical and electronics products sub-sector at 3.2 per cent, as well as the non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products sub-sector (4.4 per cent).
“On a month-on-month basis, the sales value declined by 0.6 per cent from RM162.3 billion in September 2024,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
He said the sales value of export-oriented industries, which made up 71.5 per cent of the total manufacturing sales value, maintained a year-on-year growth of 3 per cent as in September 2024.
He pointed out that the steady growth was mainly driven by the strong performance in the manufacture of vegetable, and animal oils and fats (13.7per cent); and manufacturing of rubber products (11.4per cent) industries.
He added that in comparison month-on-month, export-oriented industries experienced a 2.1 per cent decline in October 2024.
Meanwhile, domestic-oriented industries improved further by 3 per cent (September 2024: 2.5 per cent), mainly influenced by the increase in manufacture of processed food at 8.1 per cent, higher than 6.9 per cent registered in the preceding month.
Furthermore, Mohd Uzir stated that the construction related industries, manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment; and manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products remained to show favourable growth at 6.1 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively.
Compared to the previous month, he said, the sales value of domestic-oriented industries rebounded to 3.5 per cent, recovering from a 0.7 per cent decline in September 2024.
“There were 2.40 million employees involved in the manufacturing sector in October 2024, marking a 0.9 per cent increase compared to a 0.8 per cent growth in September 2024.
“The increase was observed largely in the food, beverages and tobacco (2.0 per cent); non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (1.5 per cent); and electrical and electronics products (0.3 per cent) sub-sectors.
“In comparison with the preceding month, the number of employees in this sector augmented by 0.4 per cent, slightly slower than 0.5 per cent registered in September 2024.
“In October 2024, salaries and wages in the manufacturing sector rose by 1.7 per cent, reaching RM8.28 billion.
“Compared to the previous month, salaries and wages increased by 0.6 per cent. This led to an increase on average monthly salaries and wages per employee by 0.8 per cent year-on-year to RM3,451. Simultaneously, the sales value per employee rose by 2.0 per cent to record RM67,215,” he said.
In the meantime, he said, throughout the first ten months this year (January – October 2024), the sales value of the manufacturing sector amounted to RM1,566.1 billion, an increase of 4.5 per cent as compared to the same period of 2023 (January – October 2023: 0.9 per cent).
“The number of employees increased by 0.9 per cent to a total of 2.40 million persons, while salaries and wages grew by 1.5 per cent to RM82.1 billion,” he said.
