Highlights

• On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, Singapore manufacturing output declined by 9.1% in September 2009. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output in September remained unchanged.
  
  
• On a year-on-year basis, manufacturing output declined 7.7% in September 2009. Output contracted 5.8% if biomedical manufacturing was excluded.

(I) Total Manufacturing Performance
1.  Manufacturing output declined by 9.1% in September 2009 on a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output in September remained unchanged. On a year-on-year basis, manufacturing output declined 7.7% in September 2009. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output declined 5.8%. On a three-month moving average basis, total manufacturing output in September 2009 increased 6.6% compared to the corresponding period last year. Cumulative output in the first nine months of 2009 contracted by 6.9% compared to the same period in 2008.

(II) Performance by cluster
2.  The electronics cluster output recorded a marginal decline of 1.1% in September year-on-year. Strong demand for computer peripherals products led the segment to maintain positive growth of 33.8% in September. Decline in the semiconductor segment moderated to 2.3% as demand for semiconductors pick up.  The data storage and infocomms & consumer electronics segments continued to see year-on-year decline of 20.4% and 27.4% respectively. For the first nine months of 2009, the electronics cluster contracted 21.2% compared to the same period in 2008.

3.  Output of the general manufacturing industries contracted 3.8% year-on-year in September 2009. Output of both miscellaneous industries and food, beverages & tobacco segments fell by a marginal 0.8%, while the printing segment contracted by 13.4%. Cumulative output in the first nine months of 2009 fell 6.7% compared to the same period in 2008. 

4.  The output of the transport engineering cluster fell 8.1% in September 2009 compared with the same month last year. The marine & offshore engineering segment contracted 8.6% in September with lower level of activities in rig building and ship repair & conversion compared to the same period a year ago.  On a similar note, output of the aerospace segment fell 7.8% due to fewer repair and servicing jobs. Cumulative output of the transport engineering cluster fell 1.5% in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2008.

5.  Output for the chemicals cluster declined 8.7% year-on-year in September 2009. The petrochemical and specialties segments fell 1.7% and 7.9% respectively. Refineries’ throughput fell 16.1% due to maintenance shutdowns and weak refining margins. Overall, the chemicals cluster shrank 15.0% on a year-to-date basis.

6.  The output in the biomedical manufacturing cluster contracted 13.9% year-on-year in September 2009. The medical technology segment saw output rose by 4.3%. Output of the pharmaceuticals segment, on the other hand, fell 15.2% in September after advancing strongly in the past few months. Cumulative output of the biomedical manufacturing cluster from January to September 2009 increased 23.6% compared to the same period in 2008.  

7.  The output of the precision engineering cluster registered year-on-year decline of 14.3% in September 2009. The precision modules & components and machinery & systems segments declined by 12.3% and 16.3% respectively in September. The cluster’s output from January to September 2009 was 21.2% lower than the output level in the same period last year. 

8.  The next monthly manufacturing performance media release will be issued on 26th November 2009. 

Editors’ Note: Updates on Monthly Manufacturing Output are available on
http://www.news.gov.sg and http://www.sedb.com

For media enquiries, please contact 
Mr Alex Tan 
(Tel: 68326284 / Handphone: 98410392 / Email: alex_tan@edb.gov.sg)

For further information, please contact 
Mr Chong Tse Ming 
(Tel 68326677 / Handphone: 91484194 / Email quin_chong@edb.gov.sg)