Manufacturing output up 10.5% in June

Pharmaceuticals output bounced back with 41.5% increase in June following declines in the past two months.

A government release said the higher pharmaceuticals output was due to a different mix of active pharmaceutical ingredients being produced. Output of the biomedical manufacturing cluster grew 38.8% in June 2011 year-on-year.

Meanwhile the output of the precision engineering cluster grew 35.3% year-on-year in June 2011, attributed mainly to the 60.4% growth in the machinery & systems segment. The latter’s strong growth was due to higher demand for refrigerating systems and semiconductor related equipment.

The chemicals cluster’s output grew 11.1% year-on-year in June 2011. The petroleum segment grew by 24.6% with improved refining margins. There was also a low base last year due to maintenance shutdowns. The specialties and petrochemicals segments’ output climbed by 12.8% and 2.8% respectively. The other chemicals segment meanwhile declined by 10.6%.

The transport engineering cluster’s output expanded 8.0% year-on-year in June 2011. The marine and offshore engineering segment grew 8.9%, supported by higher production of oilfield and gas field equipment. The aerospace segment also saw a higher volume of repair jobs from commercial airlines.

Output of the electronics cluster declined by 15.3% in June 2011 compared to June 2010. Output increases in the infocomms & consumer electronics (24.4%) and data storage (23.1%) segments were offset by weaknesses in the other segments particularly in the semiconductors segment which saw 23.0% decline as global demand weakened.