PETALING JAYA: The sales value of Malaysia’s manufacturing sector reached RM153.1 billion in February 2025, a year-on-year improvement of 4.7% (January 2025: 3.5%).
Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said, “The growth in sales value within the manufacturing sector was mainly driven by the food, beverages & tobacco sub-sector which recorded a favourable growth of 14.6% in February 2025 (January 2025: 10.6%). This was followed by the electrical & electronics products and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal & fabricated metal products sub-sectors at 7.7% (January: 7.3%) and 4.4% (January: 2.1%), respectively.”
However, the manufacturing sector’s February sales value was 3.2% lower than the RM158.1 billion recorded in the preceding month.
The sales value of export-oriented industries, representing 70.1% of total sales, expanded by 5.9% in February (January: 5.1%). The expansion was primarily due to the increase in the manufacture of vegetable & animal oils & fats by 18.3% (January: 11.1%). Furthermore, manufacture of computer, electronics & optical products rose by 7.8% (January: 7.7%), while manufacture of rubber products grew by 8.4% (January: 8.9%).
Similarly, domestic-oriented industries grew by 2.1% in February, after registering a marginal increase of 0.1% in January. The performance was due to the year-on-year increase in the manufacture of food processing products which continued to grow at 11.3% (January: 10.4%); followed by the manufacture of fabricated metal products industry except machinery & equipment (5.5%); and the manufacture of basic metals (5.2%).
On a month-on-month basis, both export and domestic-oriented industries dropped by 3.2% and 3.1%, respectively.
Mohd Uzir said there were 2.39 million persons engaged in the sector in February, up by 1.2% year-on-year (January: 0.9%). The increase was mainly driven by the food, beverages & tobacco (2.2%), non-metallic mineral products, basic metal & fabricated metal products (1.7%), and electrical & electronics products (1.2%) sub-sectors.
On a month-on-month basis, the number of employees in the sector decreased 0.1%.
Salaries and wages paid in the manufacturing sector in February increased 2% (January: 1.5%), amounting to RM8.4 billion. Month-on-month, salaries and wages paid dropped by 0.8%.
For the first two months of 2025 (January- February 2025), the sales value of the manufacturing sector amounted to RM311.2 billion, up 4.1% compared to January–February 2024. The number of employees ticked up by 1.2% to 2.39 million persons, while salaries and wages increased by 1.8% to RM16.9 billion.
