Amphenol relocates Penang cable assembly to a larger facility

Amphenol DC Electronics Malaysia has opened a 70,000 sq ft facility at Penang Science Park for cable assembly and box build. The opening, announced on 26 October, expands the company's manufacturing presence in Malaysia, with a further phase available for expansion.

The opening announcement distinguishes the operating premises from the potential second phase:

• 70,000 sq ft in the newly opened facility;
• 60,000 sq ft of additional potential space;
• 300 jobs expected from the development.

The employment figure is a forecast. Plant director Chan Chee Wey said the expansion would help the company respond to anticipated demand. MIDA chief executive Sikh Shamsul Ibrahim Sikh Abdul Majid associated the opening with the government's ambition to attract higher value electrical and electronics investment.

A move within Penang

The new building in Simpang Ampat is within 15 km of the previous site, according to Buletin Mutiara's opening report. Operations at the former premises have ceased, completing the relocation. The new building is reported to be four times larger; that comparison concerns the size of the premises, rather than a measured increase in production.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, who officiated at the ceremony, cited RM150 million invested since 2022. That cumulative investment period extends beyond the opening itself. He identified medical, semiconductor, heavy equipment and industrial businesses among the sectors served by ADCE's electrical and electronics work.

DC Electronics was founded in 1979 and acquired by Amphenol in 2013. It designs, engineers and manufactures custom wire harnesses, cable assemblies and integrated electronic mechanical devices. Amphenol Malaysia director Lee Teong Li dated the group's Malaysian presence to 2005.

Penang's approved investment base

The opening follows a year in which electrical and electronics manufacturing dominated Penang's approved investment figures. In a separate June 2024 account of the state's industrial investment, Chow put approved manufacturing investment for 2023 at RM63.4 billion. This represented 42% of the national total for approved manufacturing investment.

Electrical and electronics projects accounted for RM54.7 billion, or 86% of Penang's approved manufacturing total. These figures describe approvals across the state during 2023. They show the scale of the state's approved manufacturing pipeline in the year before the subsequent Amphenol opening. Neither the statewide approvals nor their electrical and electronics component is a measure of expenditure on this individual facility.