Electronics, biomedicals charge up February manufacturing

Singapore's manufacturing output grew by 16.4% in February.

Electronics and biomedicals drove Singapore's manufacturing output in February.

The latest government data, released late last week, showed that manufacturing output increased by 16.4% in February year-on-year, or by 13.6% excluding biomedical manufacturing.

Growth of the semiconductors segment, driven by the demand from 5G markets, led to a 30.3% increase in output for electronics manufacturing. Electronics makes up 43.5% of Singapore's total manufacturing output data.

Biomedical manufacturing, the second largest industry cluster at 13.6%, grew by 23.9% in February. Broken down, pharmaceuticals output grew by 16.7%, while medical technology grew by 12.6%.

Precision engineering grew by 15.0%. The machinery and systems segment grew by 23.5%, supported by the higher demand for semiconductors. This made up for the 4.5% decline in the modules and component segment.

Chemical manufacturing grew by 2.5%, with growth in the specialities and petrochemicals segments, and declines in the other chemicals and petroleum segments.

Output in the general manufacturing and transport engineering clusters declined by 5.5% and 24.2% respectively.