
Here are manufacturing sector's major drags in February
Biomedical plunged for 2 consecutive months.
According to Maybank Kim Eng, “biomedical” was down for a second month as the cluster’s output contracted by -18.0% YoY in Feb 2013 following the -15.4% YoY recorded a month earlier, reflecting lower output of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technology output with the latter being affected by lower export demand for medical devices and ophthalmic goods.
Here's more from Maybank Kim Eng:
Other major drags included “Transport” and “Precision” engineering. Transport Engineering which fell by -15.7% YoY was affected by a dip in the aerospace engineering as a result of lower jobs originating from the US and EU while marine & offshore engineering compounded the weakness within the segment due to lower building of oil rigs and ships.
The Precision Engineering cluster which accounts for 11.8% of the overall IP weighting in the meantime contracted by -19.5% YoY (Jan 2013: +7.3% YoY).