Biomed not cure for manufacturing figures

Singapore’s manufacturing output for December 2007 fell 4.7% from November, hurt by slowdowns in the biomedical manufacturing cluster.

The percentage slipped 1.7% compared to the same month a year ago.

The monthly manufacturing performance report by the Economic Development Board (EDB) showed a 34% decline in biomedical manufacturing cluster offset growth in other clusters. This was due to a lower production of active pharmaceutical ingredients caused by plant maintenance shutdown and different product mix.

Transport engineering (consisting of marine & offshore land transport aerospace engineering) saw the highest growth at 18% compared to December 2006, while precision engineering grew by 5.5%.

Year-on-year growth for the electronics cluster was at 3.3%, while the chemicals cluster grew by 3% with an increased production in petrochemicals and specialties chemicals. Output for general manufacturing in December 2007 increased by 1.4% compared to December 2006.

Generally, the annual manufacturing output of 2007 increased by 5.8% over the output in 2006, the report said.

Transport engineering experienced an annual growth of 23.5%, while general manufacturing grew by 6.3%. The electronics and chemicals clusters also increased by 4% and 3.3% respectively. Annual output for precision engineering in 2007 was relatively the same as in 2006 while the biomedical cluster decreased by 0.6%.