SINGAPORE: Singapore's manufacturing output increased 4 per cent year-on-year in October, continuing the previous month's uptick in performance. This marks the largest year-on-year increase since November last year when factory output grew 6.8 per cent.
On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing output increased 3.4 per cent, data from the Economic Development Board (EDB) showed on Tuesday (Nov 26). Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output grew 0.2 per cent year-on-year.
Advertisement Advertisement Several clusters saw increases in output. Biomedical manufacturing output expanded 24 per cent year-on-year, with the pharmaceutical segment growing 29.6 per cent on the back of higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, while the medical technology segment rose 13.1 per cent due to higher export demand for medical devices.
Output from general manufacturing also increased, growing 7.3 per cent year-on-year last month.
The food, beverages & tobacco segment grew 14.2 per cent on account of higher output of milk powder and beverage products. The miscellaneous industries segment rose 3.8 per cent with higher production of wearing apparel and construction related products. In contrast, printing output fell 11.8 per cent.
Precision engineering output grew 3.4 per cent year-on-year in October, with the precision modules & components segment growing 9.9 per cent.
Advertisement Advertisement However the machinery & systems segment fell 1.7 per cent, largely due to lower production of refrigeration systems.
Meanwhile the electronics cluster reversed its previous decline, growing 0.4 per cent year-on-year in October. The infocomms & consumer electronics, data storage and computer peripherals segments grew 23.8 per cent, 4.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively, while the rest of the electronic segments recorded a contraction in output.
Output from both transport engineering as well as chemicals fell last month.
Transport engineering output was 2.4 per cent lower year-on-year. Within the cluster, the aerospace segment grew 21 per cent with more repair and maintenance jobs from commercial airlines.
However, the land and marine & offshore engineering segments declined 4.8 per cent and 22.8 per cent respectively, where the latter recorded lower levels of offshore and shipbuilding and repairing activities.
Chemicals output fell 9.6 per cent year-on-year in October. The petroleum segment grew 3 per cent, but this was offset by lower production in the rest of the chemicals segments.
In particular, the specialties and petrochemicals segments contracted 12.4 per cent and 12.8 per cent respectively, as output in both segments was weighed down by maintenance shutdowns.
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