Electronics down, biomedical and marine industries up
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Production of computer peripherals and hard-disk drives plunged last month, by 56.9 per cent and 44.1 per cent respectively. 'Lesser demand and production relocation were the contributing factors,' said the EDB.
"WEAKENING world demand for electronic gadgets is taking the spark out of Christmas for Singapore manufacturers as industrial output grew at its slowest pace in 20 months....
Fewer cellphones were also made, causing the infocomms and consumer electronics sector to fall 11.7 per cent.
While semiconductors clocked in a 14.7 per cent expansion, this was a further moderation from September's 22.9 per cent, which itself was a slowdown from 10 months of above 30 per cent growth.
'For the next few months, we expect softer global demand for semiconductors,' said United Overseas Bank economist Alvin Liew.
Citing a number of forward-looking indicators, he said growth prospects for Singapore's main export markets, especially the United States, look weak.
The pharmaceutical and marine sectors emerged, once again, as the bright spots.
Strong growth at drug factories led a 17.8 per cent expansion of the biomedical cluster, while yards building ships and oil rigs shored up a 22.1 per cent increase in the transport engineering sector....
(Straits Times 25 Nov)
With factories re-locating to cheaper economies, it just go to show that Singapore is right to focus on new growth industries like the biomedical cluster. China is fine for making disk drives but they do not have a good reputation for high-end products like drugs. Singapore has a narrow window to prosper in this area until they catch up... -
So people are now buying Viagras, Aspirins, and Stemcells for Christmas presents now, instead of PDA phones, electronic toys/games and or laptops??