Three industries accounted for about 62.8% of the total approved investments, with petroleum products (including petrochemicals) topping the list with investments of RM20,413.5 million, followed by electrical and electronic products (RM10,652.3 million) and basic metal products (RM6,056.4 million).

By state, Johor topped the list with RM26,526.6 million or 44.9% share of total investments in the manufacturing sector, followed by Pahang with RM8,975.5 million (15.2%), Selangor (RM8,246.9 million or 14.0%), Terengganu (RM4,283.5 million or 7.3%) and Penang (RM3,825.2 million or 6.5%).

Industrial Sector

For the January to September 2018 period, WP Kuala Lumpur and Selangor recorded a combined total of 151 approved manufacturing projects with corresponding total capital investment of RM8,377.2 mil

Close to 95% of the manufacturing projects approved for Greater Kuala Lumpur comes from Selangor with RM5,839.1 million in foreign direct investment (FDI) or circa 70.9% of the state’s total capital investment.

Notable manufacturing related announcements in Selangor during 2018 include the following.

• Worldwide Holdings Bhd and GS Paperboard & Packaging Group have signed an agreement which will allow for a RM1.26 billion expansion of the latter’s current paper mill business in Kota Langat, Selangor. Oji Holdings Corp, the largest paper manufacturer in Japan, owns GS Paperboard.
• South Korea’s home appliance maker, Cuckoo Electronics Co Ltd, is set to build a RM100 million factory in Malaysia to produce water purifier products. The expansion of its manufacturing plant will be located in Port Klang, Selangor and the plant is expected to be ready in 2019.
• Western Digital will be closing its hard-disk drive (HDD) factory in Petaling Jaya by the end of 2019, due to declining demand for the product. The closure is part of the company’s move to rationalise its HDD manufacturing operations globally.

WP Kuala Lumpur and Selangor: Volume & Value of Industrial Property Transactions, 2016 to Jan-Sept 2018

In 2017, Selangor recorded a total of 1,957 industrial property transactions valued at RM6,168.90 million, 19.5% and 4.7% higher in terms of volume and value of transactions respectively when compared to the preceding year (2016: 1,638 transactions valued at RM5,891.39 million).

For the first nine months of 2018, there were 1,371 industrial property transactions with combined value of RM6,413.63 million in the state. The terraced factory category remained the most actively transacted, accounting for 45.8% share of total transacted volume in the industrial sub-sector; followed by others (24.4%), semi-detached (19.9%) and detached (9.9%) categories. In terms of value, the detached factory category topped with circa 44.5% share or RM2,855.79 million, followed by others (30.4%), semi-detached (15.7%) and terraced (9.4%) categories.

In contrast, there were only 77 recorded industrial property transactions valued at RM278.91 million in WP Kuala Lumpur in 2017 (2016: 118 transactions valued at RM397.90 million). The Federal Territory registered only 106 industrial property transactions in the first nine months of the year with corresponding value RM205.01 million

As of 3Q2018, the cumulative existing supply of industrial properties in WP Kuala Lumpur and Selangor stood at 45,359 units with the highest concentration of supply dominated by terraced factory category with 30,939 units or 68.2% market share.

The cumulative existing supply of industrial properties in Selangor stood at 40,221 units as of 3Q2018. There was an increase of 628 units from 2017, made up of 423 semi-detached units, 143 terraced units and 62 detached units.

The terraced category continued to dominate the existing supply with circa 70.6% market share, followed by the semi-detached and detached categories with 15.9% and 12.6% share respectively. The majority of terraced factories in Selangor are located in Petaling District (36.7% share or 10,415 units).

As for incoming supply, the terraced and semi-detached categories dominate with 400 units (38.8%) and 395 units (38.3%) respectively. The majority of the incoming terraced units will come from Klang District (298 units) and there will be 178 units of semi-detached factories from Gombak District.

The cumulative existing supply of industrial properties in WP Kuala Lumpur has remained unchanged at 5,138 units since 2016. The terraced category dominates the existing supply with circa 49.5% market share, followed by the flatted factory category with 32.5% share.

There is no incoming supply of industrial properties in the federal territory although there are some 37 units of terraced factories under planning stage in the districts of Kuala Lumpur and Setapak.

The asking rentals for established industrial premises in Kepong range from RM1.40 per sq ft to RM2.20 per sq ft per month while in the locality of Sungai Besi – Chan Sow Lin, they range from

RM1.50 per sq ft to RM2.50 per sq ft per month.

The asking rents for industrial premises in selected established areas such as Sections 51, 13 and 19 of Petaling Jaya remained stable, ranging from RM1.70 per sq ft to RM2.50 per sq ft per month for warehouse space and from about RM2.20 per sq ft to RM2.80 per sq ft per month for the office component.

Detached factories / warehouses in Temasya Glenmarie and Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park command monthly rental rates in the region of RM1.70 per sq ft and RM2.40 per sq ft per month respectively while asking rents in the established industrial areas of Sections 15, 21 and 26 (Hicom Industrial Estate) in Shah Alam, range from RM1.30 per sq ft to RM2.20 per sq ft per month.

Asking rents in Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park are observed to be between RM1.50 per sq ft and RM2.00 per sq ft per month while in Bukit Jelutong, asking rents are quoted between RM1.40 per sq ft and RM1.80 per sq ft per month. In Bukit Raja Industrial Park, rentals range from RM1.20 per sq ft to RM1.60 per sq ft per month.

In the traditional industrial areas of Klang (including Port Klang, Telok Panglima Garang, Pandamaran and Meru), asking rents range from RM0.80 per sq. ft. to RM1.60 per sq. ft. per month.

Industrial cum warehouse space that come with state-of-the-art facilities / higher specifications (built-to-suit) are able to command significant premium in rental yields.