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SINGAPORE: Singapore’s manufacturing output rebounded in August after contracting for three months, driven by electronics production and improvement in all but two groups.
Industrial production rose 13.7 percent in August year-on-year, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said in a press release on Friday (Sept. 25). Production had decreased by a revised 7.6% in July, 6.4% in June and 8.3% in May.
Excluding biomedical manufacturing, production grew 15.3 percent, EDB said.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, industrial production increased 13.9 percent last month. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, production grew 4.8 percent.
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PRODUCTION IN MOST CLUSTERS GROWED IN AUGUST
According to EDB, the production of most clusters increased in August, with the exception of general manufacturing and transportation engineering, which continue to be impacted by COVID-19.
The electronics group posted the largest increase in August, with production increasing 44.2 percent year-on-year.
This growth, EDB said, was “primarily attributed” to the semiconductor segment, which grew 56.9 percent amid demand for cloud services, data centers and the 5G market.
In contrast, the infocomms and consumer electronics, and computer peripherals and data storage segments posted declines.
The precision engineering group expanded 9.4 percent last month compared to the same period a year earlier.
The machinery and systems segment increased 17 percent thanks to higher production of semiconductor equipment. However, the precision components and modules segment fell 4.3 percent, EDB said.
In terms of biomedical engineering, production grew 8.4% last month compared to the same period in 2019.
The medical technology segment increased 19.3 percent with higher export demand for medical instruments, while pharmaceutical production increased 5.7 percent due to increased production of biological products.
The chemicals group rose 3.1 percent year-on-year in August, partly due to expansion in the specialty and petrochemical segments.
However, the other chemicals segment and the oil segment saw declines due to plant maintenance shutdowns and declining export orders amid the COVID-19 outbreak, EDB said.
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The general manufacturing group contracted 18.6 percent in August on a year-over-year basis, with all segments registering declines.
The food, beverage and tobacco segment fell 13.8 percent due in part to maintenance shutdowns, while print production fell 21.8 percent due to COVID-19 affecting orders. The diverse industries segment decreased 24.1 percent due to lower production of construction-related products.
The transportation engineering group also contracted. Production plummeted 36% year-on-year in August mainly due to lower levels of activities in aerospace and marine engineering and offshore, where production fell 34% and 50.7% respectively.
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