Ships, pharmaceuticals help Singapore output gain in May
Posted: 26 June 2007 1319 hrs

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SINGAPORE - Ships, oil rigs and biomedical production helped push Singapore's manufacturing output 17.7 percent higher in May compared with the same month last year, government figures showed on Tuesday.

The output beat economists' forecasts of 4.7-15.8 percent growth, but was down from the revised 19.6 percent expansion in April, Economic Development Board (EDB) figures showed.

"The increase came from the strong growth in the biomedical manufacturing and transport engineering clusters," the EDB said.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, total manufacturing output for May was 4.0 percent higher than in April, it said.

The biomedical sector expanded 76.2 percent in May, with pharmaceuticals up 82.9 percent and medical technology output rising 39.3 percent for the month, it said.

"The growth was due to a wider range of active pharmaceutical ingredients being manufactured and strong orders from the US, European Union and Japan stimulated the high production of medical devices and appliances," EDB said.

It said the transport engineering cluster achieved its fifth consecutive year-on-year gain in May.

"Total output of the cluster grew 39.5 percent, boosted in particular by the strong growth of 69.6 percent in the marine and offshore segment whose output shot up to meet the delivery of ships and oil rigs," EDB said.

More repairs of commercial aircraft boosted the aerospace segment by 3.5 percent, it said. Singapore is a regional centre for aircraft repair and maintenance.

Output of the electronics cluster in May was at the same level as a year ago.

Production of semiconductors and electronic components expanded but other segments contracted, EDB said.

Chip production grew at 8.2 percent, slower than the 18.3 percent recorded in April, EDB said.

Decreased production of mobile products and digital consumer electronics pulled down the infocomms and consumer electronics segment by 11.6 percent, it said.

Industrial output is a closely watched measure in Singapore because the manufacturing industry accounts for about one quarter of the country's trade-driven economy. - AFP/ir