Singapore’s manufacturing output increases at faster pace of 27.5% in June

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s manufacturing output grew at a faster pace of 27.5 per cent in June from the same period last year, boosted by the electronics, biomedical and chemicals clusters, official data showed on Monday (Jul 26).

The expansion outpaced the previous month's revised 27 per cent increase.

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output grew 24.8 per cent in June, said the Economic Development Board (EDB).

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing output decreased 3 per cent in June, data showed.

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ELECTRONICS, BIOMEDICAL, CHEMICALS

June's figure was headlined by a faster pace of growth in three main clusters: Electronics, biomedical manufacturing and chemicals.

The electronics cluster expanded 26.2 per cent in June, with output growth seen across all but the infocomms & consumer electronics segment. In May, the cluster expanded 23.6 per cent.

In particular, the semiconductors segment grew 28.2 per cent, supported by demand from cloud services and 5G markets.

Output in the biomedical manufacturing cluster jumped 42.5 per cent in June, compared with May's 36.5 per cent increase.

The pharmaceutical segment expanded 45.2 per cent with higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biological products, while the medical technology segment grew 37.5 per cent on the back of higher export demand for medical devices.

In the chemicals cluster, production rose 30.6 per cent in June, nearly doubling May's 16.1 per cent expansion.

In particular, the specialties and petroleum segments expanded 53.6 per cent and 32.3 per cent respectively from a year ago, when production was low due to plant maintenance shutdowns and weaker export demand amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

SLOWER PACE OF GROWTH IN SOME SECTORS

The pace of growth in the precision engineering, transport engineering and the general manufacturing industries clusters slowed.

In precision engineering, output expanded 22.2 per cent year-on-year in June, compared with 33.2 per cent in May.

Transport engineering expanded 28.3 per cent, slowing from 45.9 per cent in May.

The general manufacturing industries rose 17.4 per cent, compared with 25 per cent the previous month.

The next monthly manufacturing performance media release will be issued on Aug 26.