Singapore exports unexpectedly rise on sales of ships, boats

Singapore’s exports unexpectedly rebounded in August as sales of ships, boats and optical apparatus countered a slump in electronics caused by weakening global growth.

Non-oil domestic exports rose 5.1% from a year earlier, after a 2.8% drop in July, the island’s trade promotion agency said in a statement today. The median of 14 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a decline of 6.5%.

Europe’s failure to resolve its debt crisis and diminishing US jobs growth have hurt Asian exports and trimmed expansions from China to Singapore, prompting central banks to hold back on tightening monetary policy. Singapore’s overseas sales are sometimes supported by non-electronics goods as the nation built industries such as pharmaceuticals and marine engineering.

“The broader trend of easing Chinese purchasing managers’ index and US Institute for Supply Management readings” points to continued weakness for Singapore’s exports, Edward Lee, regional head of rates strategy at Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore, said before the report.

The Singapore government lowered its forecasts for 2011 economic and export growth last month and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said last week the island won’t be immune to a global slowdown.

Electronics shipments by companies such as contract manufacturer Venture Corp. dropped 19.4% in August from a year earlier, after declining 16.9% the previous month.

Non-electronics shipments, which include petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, increased 20.4%. Pharmaceutical shipments fell 7.1% after surging 48.5% in July.

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 rose a seasonally adjusted 8.3% last month from July, when they declined 2.3%, today’s report showed.

Singapore cut its forecast for 2011 export growth last month, saying non-oil domestic exports will probably climb 6% to 7%, less than a previous prediction of 8% to 10%.