 At the height of a tin-mining boom in the Malay Peninsula, a nascent rail line was built between Perai and the neighbouring state of Perak in the 1890s.Perai then became a transportation hub, where tin imported from Perak was loaded onto vessels to be shipped to George Town.The industrialisation of Perai only began in 1970, when the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) commenced the development of the Perai Industrial Estate and the nearby township of Seberang Jaya.