Manufacturing output up 0.1% in September

Biomedical manufacturing output, which rose 21.9%, led the monthly gains.

Singapore’s manufacturing output inched up 0.1% YoY in September but dipped 1.7% YoY in Q3, according to data from the Economic Development Board (EDB). On a monthly basis, the manufacturing output rose 3.7% in the same month as compared to August.

Also read: Singapore's industrial production fell 8% in August

The biomedical manufacturing segment’s performance, which jumped 21.9% YoY, countered the weak performances of the chemicals (-3.9%), general manufacturing (-7.4%) and electronics (-9.6%) clusters. This was thanks to the pharmaceutical segment which grew 26.2% with higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, whilst the medical technology segment rose 10.8% on the back of higher export demand for medical devices.

Meanwhile, output in the precision engineering segment edged up 4% over the same period, driven by the 11.9% rise of machinery & systems. Transport engineering’s output was also up 3%, led by the aerospace (39%) and land transport segments (18%).

On the other hand, the electronics cluster saw the worst performance in September as it contracted 9.6% YoY in September. Most of it segments, except for the data storage and infocomms & consumer electronics, have declined.

General manufacturing output dropped 7.4% YoY over the same period, with all segments recording declines. Lastly, the chemicals output went down 3.9% YoY, dragged down by 4.6% and 11.7% fall of other chemicals and specialties segments, respectively.