KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's manufacturing industry capacity utilization reached 81.8 percent rate in the first quarter of 2025, increased by 1 percentage point as compared to a year ago, official data showed.
Capacity utilization is in line with the performance of the industrial production index of the manufacturing sector, which increased 4.2 percent year-on-year during this quarter, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement.
In the first quarter of 2025, sub-sectors posted capacity utilization above 80 percent, with the highest rate recorded by the non-metallic mineral products, basic metal and fabricated metal products sub-sector at 85.2 percent, an increase of 2.3 percentage points.
This was followed by the increased 2.5 percentage points in textiles, wearing apparel, leather and footwear with a rate of 82.6 percent.
On a quarter-on-quarter comparison, the capacity utilization of the manufacturing industry recorded a mild decline of 0.1 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter in 2024.
The year-on-year increase in monthly capacity utilization performance was recorded throughout the first quarter of 2025, which was 81.8 percent in January (+0.9 percentage points), 81.2 percent in February (+1.4 percentage points), and 82.5 percent in March (+0.8 percentage points). ■
