Manufacturing sector’s sales up 9.4 pct to RM67.3 bln in Dec 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s manufacturing sector’s sales for December 2017 continued to record a strong growth of 9.4 per cent to RM67.3 billion, compared with RM61.5 billion in the same month of 2016, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOS).

In a statement yesterday, it said, the significant year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in sales value was due to the increase in electrical and electronics products (9.3 per cent), petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (12.5 per cent) and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (6.8 per cent).

The three sub-sectors accounted for 80.5 per cent of the sales in the manufacturing sector, it said.

The department said 1.05 million employees were engaged in the sector in December 2017, an increase of 2.4 per cent y-o-y from 1.03 million previously.

Salaries and wages paid rose by 9.2 per cent, or RM319.5 million, to a total of RM3.77 billion, registering an average of RM3,568 in salary and wages per employee in December 2017, it said.

It said sales value per employee gained 6.8 per cent to RM63,597 in December 2017 compared with the same month the previous year.

The volume index of services for the fourth quarter of 2017 rose by 6.8 per cent y-o-y, it said.

“The positive growth was contributed by the increase in information and communication and transportation and storage segment (7.1 per cent), wholesale and retail trade, food and beverages and accommodation (6.8 per cent), finance, real estate and professional (6.6 per cent) and other services (6.4 per cent),” it said.

On a quarterly basis, it said, the seasonally-adjusted volume index of the sector increased by 1.6 per cent.

The positive growth was contributed by the increase in information and communication and transportation and storage segment (7.1 per cent), wholesale and retail trade, food and beverages and accommodation (6.8 per cent), finance, real estate and professional (6.6 per cent) and other services (6.4 per cent). DOS

The significant year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in sales value was due to the increase in electrical and electronics products (9.3 per cent), petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (12.5 per cent) and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal...