Manufacturing continues to slide

Singapore - Slowing external demand due to a deteriorating global economic situation has led to worse-than-expected October manufacturing figures in Singapore.

Production output slipped some 12.6% in October from a year earlier, said a report by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). Output shrank 12.7% over the September of the same year.

Overall manufacturing figures were impacted by a shrinking electronics sector, which reported a slide 14% in the month due to dipping global demand. The infocomms and consumer electronics segment fell 56.6% while the semiconductors, data storage and computer peripherals segments also declined 9.9%, 10.6% and 2.2% respectively.

Biomedical manufacturing also did not fare well during the month, contracting 30.6%. The drop was largely attributed to the pharmaceutical sector, which recorded a 31.2% drop, EDB said. The medical technology segment also shrank 22.6% as a result of lower shipment overseas.

The transport engineering facilities cluster however registered year-on-year growth of 10.9% on the back of increased rig-building and offshore conversion activities.