Manufacturing sector sales up 4.7% to RM153.1bil in Feb 2025 – DoSM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s manufacturing sector sales value improved

4.7 per cent to RM153.1 billion in February 2025 (January 2025: 3.5 per cent), according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the growth in sales value in February 2025 was mainly driven by the food, beverages and tobacco sub-sector, which recorded a favourable growth of 14.6 per cent (January 2025: 10.6 per cent).

“This was followed by the electrical and electronics (E&E) products and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal & fabricated metal products sub-sectors at 7.7 per cent (January 2025: 7.3 per cent) and 4.4 per cent (January 2025: 2.1 per cent), respectively,” he said in a Monthly Manufacturing Statistics for February 2025 released today.

Mohd Uzir said the sales value of export-oriented industries, which represented 70.1 per cent of total sales, expanded by 5.9 per cent in February 2025 primarily due to the increase in the manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats by 18.3 per cent (January 2025: 11.1 per cent).

“Similarly, the domestic-oriented industries grew by 2.1 per cent in February 2025, after registering a marginal increase of 0.1 per cent in January 2025. This was due to the year-on-year increase in the manufacture of food processing products, the manufacture of fabricated metal products industry except machinery and equipment, and the manufacture of basic metals,” he added.

On a month-on-month basis, both export and domestic-oriented industries dropped by 3.2 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively, he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said the number of employees in the sector increased by 1.2 per cent to 2.39 million persons in February 2025, while on a month-on-month basis, the number of employees in the sector decreased by 0.1 per cent.

“The salaries and wages paid in the manufacturing sector also posted an increase of 2.0 per cent (January 2025: 1.5 per cent), amounting to RM8.4 billion in February 2025, while on a month-on-month basis, it dropped by 0.8 per cent.

“Subsequently, the sales value per employee went up to RM63,961 (3.5 per cent), while the average salaries and wages per employee was RM3,513, up 0.8 per cent year-on-year,” he said.

Throughout the first two months of 2025, the sales value of the manufacturing sector amounted to RM311.2 billion, an increase of 4.1 per cent from the same period in 2024 (January-February 2024: 1.9 per cent).

The number of employees went up by 1.2 per cent to 2.39 million persons, while salaries and wages increased by 1.8 per cent to RM16.9 billion, with the sales value per employee rising 2.9 per cent to RM130,009. – Bernama