Manufacturing sales hit new peak of RM142.4b in November

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s manufacturing sales in November 2021 rose 18.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) to an all time high of RM142.4 billion, while sales value increased 1.2% from the previous month attributed to the growth to petroleum, chemical, rubber & plastic products subsector (29%), especially in the manufacture of coke & refined petroleum products industries.

“The expansion was also attributed by the food, beverages & tobacco subsector (20.7%) supported by the manufacture of food products industries as well as the electrical & electronics products subsector (17.8%) mainly in the manufacture of computer, optical & electronics products,” chief statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement.

According to the latest figures by the Statistics Department, the sales value for export-oriented industries accounting for 71.7% of total sales value recorded an increase of 22.2% while domestic-oriented industries posted an increment of 11% in November 2021 as compared to the same month in 2020. The growth of sales value for export-oriented industries was in line with the double-digit growth registered in the external trade exports and the price factors that remain favourable.

On a month-on-month comparison (m-o-m), export and domestic-oriented industries recorded positive growth of 0.2% and 3.9%, respectively.

Uzir stated that the total employees engaged in the manufacturing sector in November 2021 was 2.25 million persons, an increase of 2.6% as compared to 2.2 million persons in November 2020.

“The increase was contributed by the electrical & electronic products (5%), wood, furniture, paper products & printing (3.7%) and food, beverages & tobacco products (2.3%),” he said.

The report also stated that salaries & wages paid went up 4.8% y-o-y or RM345.2 million in November 2021 to RM7.54 billion.

On a sales value per employee basis, the month reported a 15.7% increase to RM63,189 against the same month of the preceding year, meanwhile average salaries & wages per employee stood at RM3,344 in November 2021.

For the period of January to November 2021, the sales value of the manufacturing sector increased by 15.4% to RM1.41 trillion as compared to the same period in 2020.

In the first 11 months of 2021, the number of employees and salaries & wages recorded a growth of 2.6% (2.25 million persons) and 2.8% (RM81.7 billion) respectively.

Sales value per employee for the period also grew 12.5% to record RM626,036.