SINGAPORE: Singapore’s manufacturing PMI rose for the third straight month to 51.8 (+0.8 points) in August, and analysts at OCBC said this is the highest print since November 2014 and the 12th consecutive month in expansion territory (>50). “The optimism came from almost all indicators, including new orders, new exports, factory output etc.,” OCBC said. Here’s more from OCBC: This domestic manufacturing PMI largely mirrored the improvements in regional manufacturing PMI readings. The electronics PMI also improved by 1 point to 53.2 in August, which is the highest since November 2919 and marked the 13th straight month of expansion (>50).
The improvement was also broad-based. In general, global semiconductor companies have generally benefited from healthy demand for consumer electronics, data center activities fueled by cloud demand, as well as gearing up for the iPhone 8 production cycle (marking its 10-year anniversary) and consumers’ upgrading demand to mid- to high-end smartphones and other large-screen phablets. This global electronics momentum is likely to sustain in the coming months as well, although at current elevated domestic PMI prints, the upside may be relatively limited from here. We upgrade our 2017 manufacturing growth forecast from 4.7% yoy to 5.8% yoy, given that the first seven months’ performance was already a stellar 10.1% yoy, and leading indicators like the manufacturing and electronics PMIs remain very healthy. Consequently, we also upgrade our 2017 GDP growth higher from 2.5% yoy to 2.7% yoy.
