Singapore factory output surprises in March with 10.2% y-o-y rise

SINGAPORE'S factory output surprised again in March, reporting a tech-led 10.2 per cent year-on-year increase, or 5 per cent more when compared to the previous month.

This was the same rate of expansion on a year-on-year basis when compared to February's data, according to data released by the Economic Development Board on Wednesday.

On a seasonally-adjusted month-on-month basis, March's surprising output growth reversed a trend of sequential contractions seen in January and February. Economists polled by Bloomberg had only expected a monthly advance of 0.5 per cent.

Stripping away the volatile biomedical cluster, year-on-year output was even higher by 12.4 per cent. Output was 0.3 per cent higher when compared to February.

Electronics led the surge. The cluster, largest within the manufacturing sector, saw a 37.7 per cent year-on-year jump in output for March, as semiconductors reported a 54.6 per cent increase.

The precision engineering cluster's output rose 12.8 per cent. Chemicals and biomedical clusters reported output increase of 3.5 and 2 per cent, respectively.

Transport engineering was the worst performing cluster as output shrank by 15.6 per cent, dragged down by marine and offshore engineering's 30.6 per cent fall in output.

General manufacturing was the only other cluster to see a fall in output. It shrank by 5.1 per cent, as factories produced fewer construction-related products such as fiberglass products, metal doors, windows, grilles and gratings.