Saudi manufacturing received SAR 49.6 bln investments in 2016

Saudi Arabia’s manufacturing industries received investments of SAR 49.6 billion in 2016, down by SAR 4.5 billion compared to the previous year, data issued by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) showed.

The total value of assets purchased by the sector amounted to SAR 56 billion, while the value of assets sold reached SAR 6.3 billion in 2016.

Chemicals industries received the highest net investments of SAR 23.8 billion, accounting for 48 percent of the sector’s total investments.

The number of enterprises operating in the sector was 108,000 of which 78 percent have less than five employees, 7 percent have between 5-19 employees, and 5 percent of the entities have 20 employees or more.

The total number of workers in manufacturing industries reached 978,000 in 2016, of which 232,000 are Saudis and 746,000 are expatriate workers.

Workers earned the total of SAR 41.7 billion in 2016, of which SAR 35.4 billion was paid to workers in big companies with 20 employees or more.

Compensations reached SAR 49.1 billion in 2016, with the average of SAR 50,200 per worker annually and the monthly average of SAR 4,187 per worker.

The operating expenses of the manufacturing industries’ sector reached SAR 310.5 billion last year, while the operating revenue and the operating surplus stood at SAR 608.2 billion and SAR 248.6 billion, respectively.