SINGAPORE: Singapore’s industrial production (IP) grew 5.9% YoY in March 2018. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output grew 8.6% YoY.
The electronics cluster continued on an expansionary path for the 25th consecutive month and gained 12.4% YoY in March, mainly supported by the continued growth in the semiconductors (+18.8% YoY), which has been growing at a double-digit pace for the past 25 consecutive months.
Growth in the biomedical manufacturing cluster fell for the second month as it contracted 5.4% YoY in March. UOB economist Francis Tan commented, “The volatility in this cluster is exemplified by February’s initial growth rate of 8.4% YoY (first reported on 26 March 2018) being markedly revised to a contraction of 7.1% YoY in today’s release. This was probably the main reason for the downwardly revised February IP.”
Output in the chemicals cluster gained 8.2% YoY in March, as growth was led by the petrochemicals (+20.4% YoY) segment. Tan noted that there had been worries that the recent announcement by China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) that it will consider temporary anti-dumping measures on “synthetic rubber” imports from Singapore (together with US and the EU) on 19 April 2018 may negatively impact Singapore’s chemical industry.
“However, the US$879m of synthetic rubber exports in 2016 represented only 0.32% of Singapore’s total non-oil exports, while we maintain our base case scenario of no all-out trade war,” he said.
Meanwhile, the transport engineering cluster continued its third month of expansion by growing 3.5% YoY in March, mainly led by the aerospace segment (+13.1% YoY) and land transport (+8.2% YoY) segments. However, the marine and offshore engineering segment (-6.5% YoY) remained weak and contracted for the 37th consecutive month.
Output in the precision engineering cluster registered growth for the 20th consecutive month as it gained 10.5% YoY in March. Robust growth from the precision modules & components segment (+31.1% YoY) helped to boost this cluster.
