KUALA LUMPUR (June 9): The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said that the monthly sales value of the manufacturing sector had declined by 2% to RM145 billion, the lowest since May 2020.
The sales value of the manufacturing sector fell by 2% in April 2023, after registering a growth of 8% in March 2023.
It added that the decline was due to a deterioration in the food, beverage and tobacco (-12.7%), transport equipment and other manufacturers, and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic (-3.1%) sub-sectors.
“In comparison to the previous month, the sales value returned to a decline at negative 7.2%, against an increase of 7.6% registered in March 2023,” said the department on Friday (June 9).
The DOSM noted that the sales value of the export-oriented sub-sectors — which accounted for 71.5% of total sales — recorded a decrease of 3.4% in April 2023, after registering positive momentum since May 2020.
It added that the contraction was weighed down by the manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats (-23.2%), manufacture of rubber products (-14.2%), and manufacture of plastics products (-7.1%) industries.
“Nonetheless, the domestic-oriented industries maintained a positive trend, with a growth of 1.6% in April 2023, albeit at a slower pace, against 10.7% registered in March 2023.”
Meanwhile, the positive momentum of the domestic-oriented industries was due to the manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment (5.5%), manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products (4.6%), and manufacture of food processing products (3.4%) industries, it added.
It stated that both the export and domestic-oriented industries lessen by 7.2% respectively in comparison to the previous month.
The DOSM said that 2.35 million persons were engaged in the manufacturing sector in April 2023, an increase of 2.5% against 2.29 million persons a year earlier.
“The increase was supported mainly by the food, beverage and tobacco product (5.6%), electrical and electronics product (4.2%), and wood, furniture, paper product and printing (2.7%) sub-sectors.”
It noted that the number of persons engaged in these three sub-sectors encompassed more than half of the total number of employees in the manufacturing sector.
Compared to the preceding month, the number of employees in the sector edged down by 0.1%, said the DOSM.
Following that, the DOSM noted that salaries and wages paid in the manufacturing sector went up by 3.9% year-on-year, amounting to RM8.02 billion in April 2023.
“Month-on-month, salaries and wages declined by 1.9%, from the RM8.17 billion recorded in March 2023.”
It also said that average monthly salaries and wages per employee in April were higher by 14% at RM3,413, as compared to a year ago, while the sales value per employee decreased by 4.4% to RM61,716.
In terms of the overall performance for January to April 2023, the department said that the sales value of the manufacturing sector rose by 5.5% to RM594.4 billion versus the same period of the preceding year.
“Meanwhile, the number of employees increased by 2.5% to record a total of 2.35 million persons, with salaries and wages growing by 4.2% to RM32.5 billion.
“Furthermore, the sales value per employee registered a growth of 2.9%, amounting to RM253,029 for the first four months of 2023,” the DOSM said.