Transport engineering output plunges amid sluggish repair jobs in July

The aerospace segment plunged 16.2%.

The country’s industrial production registered a surprising pick-up in July, clocking in a 3.3% year-on-year growth thanks to a stunning surge in biomedical production. But excluding the biomedical cluster, July IP would have registered a 2.2% contraction.

The biggest loser last month was the transport engineering cluster, which showed a worrying 9.9% year-on-year decline on the back of lower contributions from rig building and ship repair jobs.

Output of the aerospace segment also slipped by 16.2%, due to the lower volume of repair jobs from commercial airlines.

Despite the growth in overall industrial production, Maybank Kim Eng cautions that the figures for August could be disappointing.

“But incoming Aug 2014 data point to “uneven” major economies. Preliminary manufacturing PMI prints for Aug 2014 was a mixed bag amid strengthening in US and pick up in Japan on one hand, and softening China and Eurozone on the other hand. The data implies the likely continuation in the choppy growth trend in Singapore’s industrial output seen since Apr 2014 after the strong start in 1Q 2014,” noted the report.