Singapore manufacturing inched up 2.7% in December 2018

Manufacturing output rose 7.2% in 2018.

Singapore’s manufacturing output advanced 2.7% YoY in December 2018, data from the Economic Development Board (EDB) revealed. Excluding biomedical manufacturing however, output fell 1.8%.

On a seasonally adjusted MoM basis, manufacturing output dropped 5.6%, and excluding biomedical manufacturing, it fell a further 1.1%. That being said, overall manufacturing output rose 7.2% in 2018.

Biomedical manufacturing output climbed 29.9% YoY in December 2018, with pharmaceuticals output expanding 41.2% on the back of higher production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biological products. Medical technology also saw its outputs edge up 5.4%.

Also read: Singapore non-oil domestic exports dropped 8.5% in December 2018

Transport engineering also recorded healthy results in December with outputs rising 23.7% YoY. The marine & offshore engineering segment grew 31.8% due to a higher level of work completed in offshore projects, EDB explained. The aerospace segment also rose 22.3% with more repair and maintenance activities recorded from commercial airlines.

On the other hand, output in the chemicals segment dipped 1.4% YoY in December 2018 amidst the specialties segment growing 8.5%. “The other chemicals segment recorded lower output in fragrances whilst the petrochemicals segment saw a drop in production due to maintenance shutdown,” EDB noted.

Also read: British appliance giant Dyson takes big leap to move head office to Singapore

General manufacturing also saw its outputs drop 6.8% YoY in December. EDB highlighted how whilst the infocomms and consumer electronics, and other electronics modules and components segments grew 12% and 6.6% respectively, the rest of the electronic segments saw contractions.

Precision engineering outputs dipped 8.7% YoY, with the machinery and systems segment falling 0.3% on account of lower production in semiconductor equipment, EDB added. “The precision modules & components segment declined 21.6% with lower output of optical instruments, metal precision components and dies, moulds, tools, jigs and fixtures,” the agency said.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia