PETALING JAYA: Although Malaysia’s industrial production in August underperformed market expectations, it managed to narrow its year-on-year (y-o-y) decline as the reopening of more economic sectors boosted market activities.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, however, August’s industrial production growth emerged the strongest in five months, driven by manufacturing and electricity production.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin announced that the Industrial Production Index (IPI) declined by 0.7% y-o-y in August, following a 5.2% y-o-y drop in July 2021.
A Reuters poll of 12 economists had expected August’s industrial production to rise by 0.6% y-o-y.
The marginal contraction of 0.7% was due to the decline in mining and electricity indices, which have offset the slight increase in manufacturing.
The mining and electricity indices fell by 4.2% y-o-y and 4.8% y-o-y respectively, while the manufacturing index expanded by 0.6% y-o-y.
Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin announced that the Industrial Production Index (IPI) declined by 0.7% y-o-y in August, following a 5.2% y-o-y drop in July 2021.
Contributing to the growth in the manufacturing sector in August were petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products, as well as electrical and electronics products.
The Statistics Department said export-oriented industries grew by 7.6% in August, while domestic-oriented industries shrank by 13.8%.
“The increase in export-oriented industries was mainly supported by the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products and, manufacture of computer, electronics and optical 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, and manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products,” it said in a statement yesterday.
The Statistics Department added that the mining sector output shrank in August because of a 11% fall in the crude oil and condensate index.
On a m-o-m basis, the manufacturing sector output increased by 5.3%, reflecting higher capacity utilisation.
This was especially in the electrical and electronic products, food, beverages and tobacco and petroleum, chemical, rubber, and plastic products sub-sectors.
The electricity index grew by 2.8% m-o-m, while the mining index declined by 4.5% m-o-m.“The IPI from January to August 2021 recorded an expansion of 8.2% compared with the same period of the previous year.
“The increase was driven by the rise in all components; manufacturing index (10.4%), mining index (3%) and electricity index (1.7%),” according to the Statistics Department.
In a separate statement, Mohd Uzir said the country’s manufacturing sales in August 2021 grew by 6.8% y-o-y to RM126.5bil, thanks to the reopening of more economic sectors in line with the transition phase of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
On a month-on-month comparison, the sales value also improved by 5.5%.
Manufacturing sales value for export-oriented industries, which accounted for 75.3% of total sales value, increased by 14.3% (RM95.2bil) while domestic-oriented industries fell by 10.8% in August 2021 from a year earlier.
The Statistics Department pointed out that the growth of sales value for export-oriented industries was in line with the double-digit growth registered in external trade export and price factors that remain favourable.
For the period of January to August 2021, the value of manufacturing sales expanded by 15.5% y-o-y to RM992.4bil.