Singapore's manufacturing output records slower growth of 3.4% in March
Workers at a manufacturing facility in Singapore. (File photo: TODAY)
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s manufacturing output in March 2022 continued to rise but recorded a slower growth of 3.4 per cent year-on-year, official data from the Economic Development Board (EDB) showed on Tuesday (Apr 26).
Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output in March 2022 grew by 9.7 per cent.
In February, manufacturing output had expanded by a revised 17.5 per cent.
However, on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing output decreased by 12.6 per cent.
Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output fell 6.1 per cent.
On a three-month moving average basis, manufacturing output rose 7.1 per cent in March, compared to a year ago.
The biggest growth was seen in the transport engineering cluster, where output grew 20.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
The aerospace segment grew 39.3 per cent with higher production of aircraft parts and higher demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul jobs from commercial airlines, said EDB.
The marine & offshore engineering segment rose 7.9 per cent with more work done in offshore projects, it added.
In the first three months of 2022, output from the transport engineering cluster increased 13.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The next biggest increase was in electronics where output grew by 14.5 per cent in March, compared to the same period last year.
The growth was supported by output expansions from all segments except the computer peripherals & data storage segment, said EDB.
“In particular, the semiconductors segment grew 17.3 per cent, supported by sustained demand from 5G markets and data centres amidst the global chip shortage,” it added.
Overall, the electronics cluster grew 14.6 per cent in the first three months of 2022 compared to the same period last year.
In general manufacturing, output rose 10.2 per year-on-year with all segments recording growth.
“The food, beverage & tobacco segment expanded 15.2% with a higher output of beverage products, milk products and animal feed,” said EDB.
Overall, the general manufacturing industries cluster grew 12.7 per cent in the first three months of 2022 compared to the same period last year.
Chemicals output rose 0.8 per cent in March.
The other chemicals segment rose 54.2 per cent with higher output of fragrances while petroleum throughput grew 3.8 per cent.
“The specialities and petrochemicals segments declined 1.2 per cent and 16.0 per cent respectively, with the latter recording lower production due to plant maintenance shutdowns,” said EDB.
In the first three months of the year, the cluster decreased by 1.2 per cent as compared to the same period last year.
In precision engineering, output decreased 1.4 per cent in March as compared to the same period last year.
Overall, the precision engineering cluster grew 3.6 per cent year-on-year in the period between January and March 2022, said EDB.
Biomedical manufacturing also saw output decline, with 26.3 per cent in March on a year-on-year basis.
“The medical technology segment contracted 7.1 per cent with lower export demand for medical devices,” said EDB
Between the period of January and March 2022, the biomedical manufacturing cluster decreased by 6.8 per cent, compared to the same period a year ago.
