Police said today they were investigating a missing consignment of microchips, just weeks after a multi-million-dollar chip heist raised security concerns.

The chips, worth some RM30,000 and bound for Singapore, were reported missing from the air cargo complex of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the state-run Bernama news agency said.

The director of the federal criminal investigations department, Christopher Wan, confirmed the forwarding agent for the chips had reported the consignment missing.

"The investigation is in progress," Wan told AFP , declining to give further details.

Authorities left red-faced

The authorities were left red-faced when chips worth RM50 million were stolen last month from a cargo complex in Penang, known as Southeast Asia's "Silicon Valley".

Police have yet to recover the chips or charge anyone for the daring heist in which 20 men armed with machetes and dressed in security uniforms attacked workers and forced them to drink chloroform-laced liquid.

The robbery, the largest in the country's history, left US semiconductor giant Intel shocked at poor security at the facility and triggered fears that investment in Malaysia could be adversely affected.