Singapore"s NODX fall 6.6% in March

SINGAPORE: Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) in Singapore declined 6.6 per cent on-year in March.

In a statement on Thursday, International Enterprise Singapore said the decline was due to a contraction in electronic and non-electronic NODX.

The fall in NODX comes after an 8.9-per cent on-year rebound in February.

On a month-on-month seasonally-adjusted basis, NODX contracted 8.9 per cent in March due to decrease in electronic and non-electronic NODX.

Electronic NODX fell 16.1 per cent on-year in March. According to IE Singapore, the decrease in electronic domestic exports was largely due to PC parts, which fell 38.6 per cent, and disk drives, which were down 24.1 per cent.

Non-electronic NODX contracted 2.4 per cent on-year in March. The decline in non-electronic NODX was led by pharmaceuticals, which fell by 44.6 per cent, and aromatic chemicals, which dropped 43.9 per cent.

Some economists said that one reason for the weak performance is that Singapore is a secondary location on the electronics value chain.

Leong Wai Ho, senior regional economist at Barclays, said: “The correlation to the global business cycle recovery is somewhat seeing longer lags than before. So demand from the EU and US has picked up, but it seems that the orders are going to larger, North Asian producers, who are more grounded in the smartphone value chain than us.”

Another reason could be that an increasing part of the electronics exports is being classified as re-exports due to the relatively lower Singapore content in some of these shipments.

Re-exports are goods exported from Singapore in the same form as they have been imported, without undergoing any transformation, such as manufacturing, assembly or processing.

However, total trade rose 11.4 per cent on-year in March, following a 9-per cent increase in February. 

Total exports grew 7.9 per cent, while total imports rose 15.3 per cent on-year.

Oil domestic exports expanded 6.9 per cent on-year in March, mainly due to higher sales to China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Non-oil re-exports (NORX) rose 18.7 per cent on-year in March, following a 15.5-per cent expansion in February. This was due to an increase in electronic and non-electronic NORX.

Electronic NORX went up by 19 per cent due to diodes and transistors, integrated circuits and parts of integrated circuits.

Non-electronic NORX grew 18.4 per cent. This was mainly due to jewellery, non-electric engines and motors, precious stones and pearls.

Some economists are warning that final numbers for the first quarter GDP could be revised down.

Preliminary estimates, released earlier this week, show first quarter GDP growth coming in at 5.1 per cent year-on-year.

While exports are seen remaining weak in the coming months – some economists are hopeful of brighter days ahead.

Michael Wan, an analyst of Asia (excluding Japan) economics at Credit Suisse, said: “Some sort of moderation of export activity in the first quarter, from a relatively okay fourth quarter last year. So moving forward, we do expect exports in Singapore to pick up.

“And the reason for that — we think that the US and Europe are going to do better over the rest of this year.”

Singapore"s NODX fall 6.6% in March