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       KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s manufacturing sector output increased 4% year-on-year (y-o-y) in September 2021, after growing 0.6% in August, according to the Statistics Department.

       The contributing sub-sectors were electrical and electronics products (12.3%), petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (6.1%) as well as food, beverages and tobacco (2.1%).

       The country’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) which consist of three main sectors – mining, manufacturing and electricity – also increased 2.5% y-o-y in September.

       “The expansion of IPI was due to an increase of 4% in manufacturing index and 0.4% in electricity index. Meanwhile, mining index saw a drop of 3%.

       “On month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, the IPI increased 3.7%, driven by manufacturing and electricity sectors,” said chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

       Export-oriented industries grew 6.7% while domestic-oriented industries shrank 1.9%.

       The increase in export-oriented industries was mainly supported by the manufacture of computer, electronics and optical products as well as the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products.

       The performance of the manufacturing sector was also in line with the encouraging growth of exports.

       Meanwhile, the decline in the domestic-based industries was influenced by the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers as well as the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products.

       The manufacturing sector also increased 5.5% m-o-m due to higher capacity utilisation, especially in the food, beverages and tobacco, electrical and electronic products as well as petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products sub-sectors.

       The mining sector output shrank 3% y-o-y in September, due partly to the fall of 7.7% in crude oil and condensate index. Meanwhile, natural gas index jumped 1%. The mining index declined 2.9% m-o-m.

       The electricity sector output rose 0.4% y-o-y in September and grew 1.6% m-o-m.

       The IPI for the third quarter of 2021 deteriorated 1.1% y-o-y due to the fall in all electricity, mining and manufacturing indices (3.1%, 2.2% and 0.7%, respectively).