The country's manufacturing sales rose 7.4 percent in June from a year earlier to RM27.7 billion and 3.0 percent from May, helped by strong semiconductor exports, the Statistics Department said today.

For the first half of the year, manufacturing sales surged 10.2 percent year-on-year to RM162.50 billion, according to preliminary figures released by the department.

The department has also revised upwards May manufacturing sales from RM26.4 billion to RM26.9 billion, up 7.2 percent year-on-year and 2.7 percent higher than April.