Singapore factory output up by 30% in May on low base from year-ago circuit breaker

SINGAPORE'S industrial production jumped by 30 per cent year on year in May, for its seventh straight month of growth, with help from a year-ago low base during the two-month circuit-breaker shutdown.

Expanding from a 2.3 per cent rise in the month before, factory output beat the median estimate of 24.1 per cent growth in a Bloomberg poll, with gains across the board.

When contributions from biomedical manufacturing were excluded, industrial production added 29 per cent, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said on Friday.

That's as the volatile biomedical cluster swelled by 35.6 per cent, on higher export demand for medical devices, and more production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biological products. The showing was a reversal from April's 22.9 per cent decline.

Singapore's linchpin electronics cluster also posted double-digit expansion, to the tune of 23.2 per cent, in a pickup from the growth of 7.2 per cent in April.

While output grew across the board in the electronics industry, the cluster's latest increase was led by the semiconductor segment, which the EDB said was "supported by demand from 5G markets and a low production base a year ago".

Similarly, output in the precision engineering cluster rose by 58.6 per cent year on year in May, from 19.5 per cent in April. Growth was driven by the machinery and systems segment, which the EDB attributed to "higher production of semiconductor equipment to cater to the strong capital investment in the global semiconductor industry".

Chemicals output was higher by 16.2 per cent, up from 14.5 per cent in April, with all segments in the black for the month. The specialties segment reported higher production of industrial gases and mineral oil additives, while petrochemicals grew on a low base from plant maintenance shutdowns in the year before, the EDB noted.

Transport engineering was in positive territory for the second straight month, with growth of 44 per cent, after languishing in contraction for 12 months to March.

The cluster saw a year-on-year recovery from the circuit breaker in the year before, which had hobbled marine and offshore engineering production, even as the aerospace segment also rose against the low base from the past year's grounded fleets.

Meanwhile, general manufacturing added 27.8 per cent in May, improving from 16.4 per cent in the month prior. The cluster was lifted by the miscellaneous industries segment, where output nearly doubled on the low base for construction-related goods.

On a seasonally adjusted, monthly basis, industrial production was up by 7.2 per cent in May, or 9.8 per cent when biomedical manufacturing was excluded.