Malaysia Industrial Production Slows for Second Straight Month
Malaysia's industrial production growth cooled for a second month in March as the U.S. slowdown weakened demand for electronics.
Production at factories, utilities and mines rose 3 percent from a year earlier, easing from a revised 6.5 percent gain in February, the Putrajaya-based Statistics Department said today. Economists were expecting a 4.2 percent increase.
A slowdown in the U.S., Malaysia's largest export market, is hurting demand for Intel Corp. chips and Dell Inc. laptop computers made in the country. Growth in Southeast Asia's third- largest economy may slow for the first time in three years in 2008 as global trade cools, the central bank said in March.
“I don't think we're at the bottom,'' said Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin, an economist at Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “Going forward, the performance will be characterized by slowing manufacturing output, at least until the third quarter of this year.''
Malaysia's March exports grew 5.3 percent, the slowest pace in three months, as the U.S. slowdown and a stronger currency eroded the value of electronics shipments. Sales to the U.S payday loans. in March dropped 22 percent, the Trade Ministry said this month.
Manufacturers
Manufacturing output by companies including Unisem (M) Bhd. and Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd., the nation's two largest publicly traded chip assemblers, grew 3.7 percent in March from a year earlier, slowing from 6.7 percent in February, the Statistics Department said today.
Manufacturing accounts for more than 30 percent of Malaysia's $151 billion economy, and manufactured goods comprise almost four-fifths of the country's shipments abroad.
Mining output rose 1.8 percent in March, while electricity production fell 1 percent.
Malaysia, Southeast Asia's second-largest oil and gas producer and the world's No. 2 palm oil seller, is counting on domestic demand and record commodities prices to sustain growth as global trade slows.
Malaysia's economy may expand between 5 percent and 6 percent in 2008, weakening from 6.3 percent last year, the central bank said in March.