Singapore's manufacturing output declines 6.1% in July

Singapore's manufacturing output declined 6.1 percent year-on-year in July, said the Economic Development Board (EDB) on Wednesday.

According to data released by EDB, output, excluding biomedical manufacturing, fell by 4.1 percent on a year-on-year basis. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing output decreased 4.0 percent. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output grew 1.2 percent month-on-month.

The decline means that factory activity has contracted for six consecutive months.

Electronics cluster output fell 5.8 percent year-on-year in July. Cumulatively, output of the electronics cluster declined 2.3 percent from January to July this year, compared to the same period last year.

Output of the transport engineering cluster fell 6.1 percent, while the biomedical manufacturing cluster's output declined 13.4 percent in July. Within the biomedical manufacturing cluster, output of the medical technology segment increased 10 percent, but this was offset by a contraction in the pharmaceuticals segment.

Output of the general manufacturing industries cluster declined 3.2 percent, with the printing segment falling 1.0 percent with a lower volume of commercial printing jobs, while the miscellaneous industries segment contracted 3.1 percent, mainly due to lower output in wearing apparels, metal doors, windows, grilles & gratings and wooden furniture & fixtures, EDB said.

Output of the chemicals cluster registered the highest performance, which increased 4.4 percent on a year-on-year basis in July, with all segments posting higher output. The cluster's growth was led by the specialties and petroleum segments, which recorded growth of 8.6 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively. Growth in the specialties segment was supported by higher export demand.

In the first seven months of this year, output of the chemicals cluster rose 3.7 percent, compared to the same period in 2014.