Singaporean industrial production output surpasses expectations in July

Singaporean industrial output dropped in July. On a year-on-year basis, the industrial production fell 0.4 percent, as compared with prior month’s fall of 8.1 percent and consensus expectations of a drop of 4.9 percent. Stripping biomedical manufacturing, industrial production dropped 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, on a seasonally adjusted sequential basis, industrial production rose 3.6 percent, as compared with the prior month’s fall of 0.3 percent and consensus expectations of a fall of 1.3 percent. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output rose 9.4 percent.

General manufacturing output rose 6.9 percent year-on-year. The miscellaneous industries segment rose 10.8 percent on account of higher production of metal tanks & containers and wearing apparel, while the food, beverages & tobacco segment grew 7 percent with higher output of beverage products.

Chemicals output rose 2.2 percent year-on-year. The other chemicals and specialty chemicals segments rose 13.1 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively, with the former recording higher output in fragrances. Meanwhile, the petrochemicals and petroleum segments shrank, mainly because of maintenance shutdowns in some plants.

Biomedical manufacturing rose 0.8 percent year-on-year in July. The medical technology segment rose 17.7 percent on the back of higher export demand for medical devices while the pharmaceutical segment dropped 4.8 percent. The biomedical manufacturing cluster rose 8.3 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the transport engineering output dropped 0.2 percent year-on-year, while the electronics output shrank 0.9 percent year-on-year. The data storage and semiconductors segments rose 1.8 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, while the remainder of the electronic segments saw a contraction in output.