KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — The manufacturing sector continued its double-digit growth to record RM159.2 billion in sales in November 2022, an increase of 11.8 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the continuous growth was driven mainly by the electrical and electronic (E&E) products subsector (19 per cent), particularly in the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical product industries.

The growth was also attributed to the petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (15 per cent) underpinned by the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products industries.

"In the meantime, sales value in the transport equipment and other manufactures picked up strongly by 10.2 per cent boosted by the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers industries,” he said in a statement today.

He said export-oriented industries’ sales value, which contributed 72.9 per cent of total sales, remained on a steady pace with 13.6 per cent growth in November 2022 compared to 16.1 per cent in October 2022, in line with the acceleration in external trade exports growth and price increases.

On the other hand, he said the sales value of domestic-oriented industries improved to 7.1 per cent compared with 4.7 per cent growth registered in the previous month.

He said the sales value for export-oriented industries declined by 1.9 per cent versus October 2022 while domestic-oriented industries posted an increase of 6.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said total employees engaged in the manufacturing sector accounted for 2.33 million persons in November 2022, which went up by 3.3 per cent versus 2.25 million persons a year ago.

"The increment was contributed by the E&E products (5.4 per cent); food, beverages and tobacco products (4.3 per cent); and petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (2.4 per cent) subsectors,” he said.

On salaries and wages paid in the manufacturing sector, Mohd Uzir said it grew by 4.7 per cent, amounting to RM7.89 billion, and the sales value per employee rose by 8.2 per cent to record RM68,380 compared with the same month in 2021 while the average salaries and wages per employee were RM3,389.

He said from January 2022 to November 2022, the sales value of the manufacturing sector soared 16.6 per cent to RM1.64 trillion as compared to the same period in 2021.

"Meanwhile, the number of employees added by 3.3 per cent to record a total of 2.33 million persons with salaries and wages increased by 5.2 per cent to RM86 billion.

"During the period, sales value per employee amounted to RM706,339 with a growth of 12.8 per cent y-o-y,” Mohd Uzir added. — Bernama