Singapore's manufacturing output grew 12.1% in February

On a year-on-year basis, Singapore's manufacturing output grew 12.1% in February 2012. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output increased 7.1%. On a three-month moving average basis, manufacturing output expanded 8.1% in February 2012 compared to a year ago. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing output contracted 1.1% in February 2012. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output declined 0.1%.

The transport engineering cluster's output expanded 32.4% year-on-year in February 2012. Within the cluster, the marine & offshore engineering segment recorded robust growth of 41.7%, which was supported by higher percentage of completion in oil rig and oil field related equipment projects. Output of the aerospace segment also grew strongly, at 22.2%. Output of the transport engineering cluster in the first two months of 2012 increased 20.0%, compared to the same period in 2011.

The precision engineering cluster expanded 19.0% year-on-year in February 2012. The output of the machinery & systems and precision modules & components segments increased 23.3% and 14.7% respectively, partly due to lower activities in February last year during the Chinese New Year holidays. On a year-to-date basis, output of the precision engineering cluster was 0.6% higher than the same period a year ago.

The general manufacturing cluster's output grew 16.4% year-on-year in February 2012 with all segments recording higher output. This was mainly due to a low base in February last year when many plants shut down for the Chinese New Year holidays. On a year-to-date basis, the general manufacturing cluster's output grew 2%.