The increase is attributable to a 14.6 percent on-year rise in electronics and a 26.6 percent gain in shipments from local refined petroleum businesses in the one-year period, the agency said. The machinery sector also posted a 19 percent on-year rise last year.

Such gains offset losses in the shipbuilding and automaking sectors, it said.

The report also said that the average shipment for manufacturing companies stood at 21.7 billion won last year, up 6 percent vis-a-vis 2016.

It said value-added products by mining and manufacturing companies rose 8.1 percent, or 41 trillion won, in 2017 to over 547.7 trillion won.

As of the end of 2017, there were 69,790 mining and manufacturing companies in the country employing 2.96 million people. This represents a slight fall from the year before.

The report also showed the number of workers at shipbuilding-related firms declined 2.1 percent last year to some 143,000, as the sector was still reeling from an industrywide downturn amid supply glut. (Yonhap)