Newsletter: December 2006  

Malaysia Textile Industry Structure

In 2000, Malaysian textile-manufacturing establishments numbered 530, as reported in the 2005 ASEAN Statistical Yearbook. There were 2,682 facilities in Malaysia that produced apparel or dressed and dyeing. According to a 2003 report from the US International Trade Commission entitled “Textiles and Apparel: Assessment of the Competitiveness of Certain Foreign Suppliers to the US Market,” the Malaysian industry comprised 237 mostly small and medium-sized firms in 2000. MIDA reports that as of July 2005, there were about 900 companies in production, employing more than 68,000 workers.  

According to MITI, the textile and apparel industry employed 66,506 people last year, a 3.9-percent decrease from 2004, in a country with an estimated July 2006 population of 24.4 million people and a labor force of approximately 10.7 million. MITI attributed the employment decline to greater production automation and increased focus on producing high-value-added products. 

The industry’s 2005 productivity was up 8.1 percent from 2004 for a sales value per employee of $34,644, mainly the result of high demand in the man-made-fiber spinning and apparel subsectors. The textiles sector recorded a 4.8-percent decline in sales value per employee to $55,839, which was attributed to competition from countries with lower production costs. Sales value per employee in the apparel sector, on the other hand, grew by 10.6 percent to $21,829, a rise resulting from the development of fashion and design niche markets and more demand for apparel manufacturing, accessories, and merchandising.
According to the Switzerland-based International Textile Manufacturers Federation’s (ITMF) 2005 edition of its International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics report, Malaysia’s spinning capacities for 2004 numbered 650,000 short-staple spindles, 35,000 long-staple spindles and 6,000 open-end rotors. Those capacities were the same in 2003. The country’s weaving capacities in 2004 were 4,000 shuttleless looms and 1,200 shuttle looms, also identical to the 2003 reported numbers.  

There were no reported 2005 shipments for short-staple, long-staple and false-twist spindles, nor for open-end rotors and flat-knitting machines. However, cumulative texturing shipments from 1996 to 2005 numbered 4,968 for double-heater false-twist spindles. Two rapier/projectile, 132 air-jet and zero water-jet made up the reported 2005 shipments of shuttleless looms. Textile machinery manufacturers shipped a total of 4,165 shuttleless looms and 27 shuttle looms from 1996 to 2005. Shipments in 2005 of circular-knitting machines with working widths greater than 165 millimeters totaled 60. ITMF reports that in 2005, Malaysia invested in very few finishing machines, a category that was included in its annual report that year for the first time.