Singapore manufacturing surges 24% in September

Singapore's industrial production surged by a whopping 24.2% year-on-year and 10.1% month-on-month (seasonally adjusted.

The growth was much faster than our estimates, +1.6% YoY and -9.3% MoM, which were derived from manufacturing growth in the initial 3Q GDP estimate released earlier this month. It’s also much better than the +5.9% (-11.3% MoM) non-oil domestic export (NODX) growth in the last month.

Meanwhile, the August industrial production growth was revised higher to 15.4% YoY from the initial reading of 13.7%. Two straight months of industrial production bounce reflects strong post-Covid manufacturing recovery.

The electronics and pharmaceutical sector remained the star performers, building on their disproportionate benefits in recent months from an upswing in the global electronics cycle and the Covid-19 pandemic. The electronics sector grew by 30% YoY in September and 45% in August while the pharmaceuticals sector grew by 114% YoY and 10% respectively.

Precision engineering and transport followed on, though strong month-on-month bounces here fell short of pulling the year-on-year growth rates into positive territory. Chemicals including petrochemicals continued to be the weak spot in the overall manufacturing, which could be traced to lower global oil prices.