Singapore factory output up 17.9% in November on pharma, semicon boom

• Dec 24, 2020

SINGAPORE’S factory output was back on track in November, after an earlier decline, as plants in the volatile pharmaceuticals segment roared to life.

Industrial production surged by 17.9 per cent year on year, after a shock dip of 0.8 per cent in October, Economic Development Board (EDB) data showed on Thursday.

Manufacturing performance, fuelled by both biomedical and electronics clusters, handily beat the estimate of 14.1 per cent growth from analysts in a Bloomberg poll.

But, even excluding the volatile biomedical manufacturing cluster, factory output rose by 14 per cent, against the fall of 2.7 per cent in the month before.

Biomedical output jumped by 40.6 per cent in November, up from 10.7 per cent in October.

The medical technology segment also expanded on higher export demand for medical devices, but the cluster’s growth came largely on a 50.8 per cent rise in the output of pharmaceuticals, which was driven by active pharmaceutical ingredients and biological products.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s lynchpin electronics segment clocked 34.9 per cent growth to reverse the previous month’s 1.1 per cent slip.

Although all segments expanded except infocomms and consumer electronics, the increase was fuelled by the semiconductor segment, which EDB attributed to demand from 5G markets and a low year-ago base.

The electronics-adjacent precision engineering industry raised output by 7.3 per cent, led by semiconductor equipment in the machinery and systems segment.

And the chemicals cluster overcame October’s 0.6 per cent decline to grow 10.1 per cent in November.

To be sure, the petroleum segment extended its double-digit losing streak to shrink by 31.7 per cent, on continued weak demand amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But this loss was offset by 25.1 per cent growth in petrochemicals, after a year-ago low base from maintenance shutdowns, while speciality chemicals expanded by 8.9 per cent by churning out industrial gases and mineral oil additives.

On the other hand, the pandemic-hit transport engineering cluster registered a 29.5 per cent contraction in output, as higher production of land vehicle parts could not make up for the declines in marine and offshore engineering and aerospace.

“The levels of activity in the aerospace firms and shipyards remained low as new orders were adversely impacted by travel restrictions and weak global oil and gas market,” the EDB said in its monthly manufacturing report.

General manufacturing was the other big loser, contracting by 13.3 per cent with all industries in the red, with the EDB noting factors such as lower production of drinks and milk powder, and “weak demand for construction-related products”.

On a seasonally adjusted, month-on-month basis, Singapore’s manufacturing sector grew by 7.2 per cent in November, or 6 per cent with biomedical output excluded.

The latest EDB figures take Singapore’s year-on-year production growth to 6.5 per cent for the first 11 months of 2020, or 2.1 per cent without biomedical manufacturing.

Source: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/singapore-factory-output-up-179-in-november-on-pharma-semicon-boom