Singapore's Marine & Offshore Sector Powering Output

Singapore's first-quarter growth could be revised higher after data on Friday showed unexpectedly strong industrial output in March, double the pace of market expectations, with output in marine and offshore engineering +45.1% y/y.

Manufacturing output in March surged 12.1 percent from a year earlier, far exceeding expectations in a Reuters poll for growth of 6.3 percent.

Output rose 6.1 percent on a month-on-month, seasonally adjusted basis, quicker than the median forecast of 1.5 percent.

The jump in manufacturing output was stronger than what was implied by the government's advance estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) released

Marine And Offshore Engineering
Helping to drive the surprising strength in industrial production was a surge in output in the marine and offshore engineering segment, which jumped 45.1 percent year-on-year.

The rise came as work on several rig and ship building projects played a part in the jump in output from those sectors, the Singapore Economic Development Board said.

(By Masayuki Kitano)