Singapore export growth slows on slump in electronics shipments

Singapore’s exports climbed in June at less than a third the pace estimated by economists as manufacturers shipped fewer electronics goods and sales of pharmaceuticals eased.

Non-oil domestic exports rose 1.1% from a year earlier, after a revised 7.6% gain in May, the island’s trade promotion agency said in a statement today. The median estimate of 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for an increase of 3.8%.

Europe’s debt crisis, slowing U.S. growth and supply-chain disruptions as a result of disasters in Japan have damped demand for Asian goods. Purchasing managers’ indexes and export data released this month showed factory output slowing in Asian economies from China to South Korea, which may reduce the scope for monetary policy tightening as regional growth cools.

 

“The impact from Japan production seemed to have passed but global uncertainty over Eurozone debt worries, a soft U.S. recovery and record highs in the Singapore dollar is expected to weigh on” export growth, Chester Liaw, an economist at Forecast in Singapore, said before the report.

 

Electronics shipments by companies such as contract manufacturer Venture Corp. dropped 17.2% in June from a year earlier, after declining 15.2% the previous month.

 

Non-electronics shipments, which include petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, increased 12%. Pharmaceutical shipments added 1.1% after advancing 61.8% in May.

 

The performance of Singapore’s pharmaceutical industry is volatile as production swings by companies such as Sanofi- Aventis SA can cause industrial output to fluctuate from month to month. Drug companies sometimes shut plants for cleaning before making different products.

 

Singapore’s non-oil exports fell a seasonally adjusted 4.5% last month from May, when they increased a revised 7.4%, today’s report showed.