June factory output shrinks 3.9% as chip production falls

Biomedical manufacturing industry the worst performer, plunging 23.2%

- Timothy Goh

Singapore’s manufacturing output shrank in June, reversing from a turnaround in the month before as chip production dropped.

Total output declined 3.9 per cent year on year, after a downwardly revised 2.3 per cent increase in May and a 1.2 per cent drop in April.

Economists polled by Bloomberg forecast a 0.1 per cent contraction in output.

Excluding the more volatile biomedical industry, production slipped 1.6 per cent, data released by the Economic Development Board on July 26 showed.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, production decreased by 3.8 per cent in June. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, it fell 6.4 per cent.

The electronics industry, which accounts for nearly half of Singapore’s manufacturing production, saw output drop by 5.5 per cent year on year, after growing a revised 18.6 per cent in May.

Semiconductors – which make up about 41 per cent of total factory output – shrank 9.4 per cent.

Other electronics modules and components rose 6.5 per cent, while computer peripherals and data storage grew 14.3 per cent, and infocomms and consumer electronics production added 20.9 per cent.