Malaysia’s construction sector continued to expand in the second quarter of 2023, with the value of work done rising by 8.1 percent year-on-year to 32.4 billion ringgit (about 7.08 billion U.S. dollars), official data showed on Wednesday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that the growth was supported continuously by double-digit growth in civil engineering with 10.4 percent in the quarter.
In the meantime, the sub-sector of special trade activities recorded higher growth in this quarter by 9.8 percent.
The non-residential buildings sub-sector also grew modestly by 5.7 percent in the quarter.
Additionally, the work done value in the residential buildings sub-sectors rebounded to 6.9 percent.
It is noted that a total of 12.1 billion ringgit, or 37.4 percent of the construction work done value, was civil engineering, contributed mainly by the construction of roads and railways with a value of 6.5 billion ringgit in the quarter.
The value of work done for non-residential buildings and residential buildings was 9.9 billion ringgit (30.7 percent) and 7.3 billion ringgit (22.7 percent), respectively.
The combined share of these two construction activities made up more than half of the work done value in this quarter, encompassing 53.4 percent.
Meanwhile, special trade activities amounted to 3 billion ringgit (9.2 percent).
The private sector remained as the main driver to the growth in this quarter, with an increase of 17.3 percent.
The value of work done by the private sector amounted to 20.4 billion ringgit, or 63.1 percent of the total construction work done value.
Nevertheless, the public sector with a share of 36.9 percent, or equivalents to 11.9 billion ringgit, declined by 4.8 percent. (1 ringgit equals 0.22 U.S. dollar)