Chief statistician Uzir Mahidin said this represented a marginal increase as compared to RM152.7 billion sales value or a 3.2% growth registered in the previous month.

“The (February) increase was supported by an expansion in the transport equipment and other manufactures at 7.3%, and the non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products (5.7%) sub-sectors,” he said in a statement today.

He said the sales value of the electrical and electronics products sub-sector, which accounted for 34.1% of the total sales, grew by 1.3%.

DoSM said that the sales value of export-oriented industries, which represented 69.6% of total sales, fell by 1.3% in February 2024 (January 2024: 0.1%), largely attributable to the continuous contraction in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products, which registered a negative 8.8%.

“Meanwhile, the momentum of sales value for domestic-oriented industries remained positive, expanding by 5.6% in February 2024 (January 2024: 10.8%).

“The expansion was primarily bolstered by the increases registered in the manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment (9.1%), manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (9.0%), and manufacture of food processing (5.2%).

“The sales value of domestic-oriented industries decreased by 5.8% as compared to the positive 2.3% recorded in January 2024,” said the department.

Summarising the manufacturing sector performance up to February 2024, Uzir said that to date, the sales value of the manufacturing sector achieved RM298.9 billion, a 1.9% growth as compared to the first two months of 2023 (January-February 2023: 8.3%).