Manufacturers in Singapore had a stellar run in 2017 with output expanding at its fastest rate since 2010, even as December’s lower-than-expected industrial production figures ended the year on a more somber note.
Singapore’s factory output decreased 3.9% in December 2017 compared to a year ago, missing economists’ expectations of a 0.8% expansion. If the volatile biomedical manufacturing cluster was excluded, output would have grown 4.5%, CNA reported.
On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, output fell 2% in December. Excluding biomedical, output dipped 0.7%. But overall, Singapore’s industrial production rose 10.1% in 2017 compared to a year ago.
Precision engineering was the strongest performer, with growth of 18.2% year-on-year in December. Boosted by semiconductor demand, total output for the cluster grew 17.8% last year compared to 2016.
Electronics—a key driver of economic growth in 2017—grew at a more sedate pace of 4.2 per cent in December, supported by semiconductors and computer peripherals. For the whole of 2017, electronics grew 33.5% compared to a year ago.
The chemicals cluster rose 14.4% in December, with all segments recording output growth. It was up 6.2% in 2017. General manufacturing also went up 2.9% in December, even though its overall output for 2017 still declined 1.6% from a year ago.
Transport engineering fell 11.7%, mostly due to the continued protraction of the marine & offshore engineering segment which was down 18.2%. For the whole of 2017, the cluster’s output was 6.9% lower than 2016.
The highly volatile biomedical manufacturing plunged 34.7% compared to a year ago. Year to date, it fell 9.3% compared to the same period a year ago.
