January manufacturing sales up 11% year-on-year

PETALING JAYA: Manufacturing sales in Malaysia soared 10.8% to RM67.8 billion in January this year compared with RM61.2 billion in the same month of 2017.
The Department of Statistics said in a statement today the significant increase in sales value was due to increases in electrical and electronic products (14.3%); petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (10.9%); and non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (8.1%).
These three sub-sectors contributed 80.2% to the sales value of the manufacturing sector in the first month of the year.
The total number of employees engaged in the manufacturing sector in January 2018 was 1.07 million persons, a 2.5% increase or 26,203 persons from the 1.04 million persons in January 2017.
Salaries and wages paid rose 13.3% or RM439.7 million to RM3.74 billion, translating into an average salaries and wages per employee of RM3,494 in January 2018.
Sales value per employee was up by 8% to RM63,292 compared with the same month in the previous year.