Singapore’s manufacturing output declined by 0.1% year-on-year in February 2026, reversing a strong 12.9% expansion in January. This was the first contraction in factory activity since August of the previous year, as production weakened across almost all clusters except electronics.
Biomedical manufacturing registered the steepest fall, shrinking 27.3% after a 33.6% drop in January, amid continued volatility in pharmaceutical production (-18% vs -44.8%) and softer demand for medical devices (-30.4% vs -28.1%). General manufacturing output also contracted (-5.7% vs -2.6%), alongside chemicals (-4.6% vs 2.3%), precision engineering (-3.5% vs 14%), and transport engineering (-0.2% vs 25.2%).
By contrast, the electronics cluster remained the key bright spot, expanding 13.7% year-on-year, though at a slower pace than January’s 34% surge, supported in part by AI-related demand. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, overall manufacturing output fell 7.2% in February, following a 2% increase in the previous month.
