Electronics shipments from Singapore more than doubled in June. They rose 105.1 per cent from a year earlier, and still the headline number fell short of what economists wanted.
Enterprise Singapore reported on July 17 that non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew 20.7 per cent year on year in June. The Straits Times said a Bloomberg poll of economists had pointed to 28.7 per cent. May had been far stronger, at 38.4 per cent, so the month marked a clear cooling.
Chips and disks carry the month
Almost everything good in the data came from one sector. Disk media products jumped 170.9 per cent, integrated circuits climbed 115.4 per cent and PCs added 95.8 per cent. CNA reported that Enterprise Singapore put the surge down to robust AI-related demand.
The rest of the export basket went the other way. Non-electronics shipments slipped 2.9 per cent after rising 17.7 per cent in May. Non-monetary gold fell 49 per cent, food preparations dropped 38.6 per cent and petrochemicals lost 27.9 per cent.
OCBC chief economist Selena Ling did not soften it. “This meant that the resilient June NODX was single-handedly powered by electronics exports due to the AI boom,” she said. She called June’s electronics growth the strongest since 1998.
Nomura’s Euben Paracuelles traced the downside surprise to volatile lines such as pharmaceuticals and gold, rather than to the electronics boom itself.
Where the shipments went
All of Singapore’s top 10 markets took more NODX in June than a year before. Taiwan led, with a rise of 123.3 per cent. Exports to South Korea grew 62.9 per cent and those to the United States 36.7 per cent. CNA noted that Ling saw even Indonesia edge back to growth, at 2.7 per cent, after a run of contractions.
Total merchandise trade expanded 49.3 per cent in June, with exports up 48.9 per cent and imports up 49.8 per cent. Non-oil re-exports rose 60.3 per cent. For the first half of 2026, NODX grew 18.6 per cent.
What economists expect next
None of the economists quoted treated the miss as a warning. DBS senior economist Chua Han Teng pointed out that NODX expanded 27.4 per cent in the second quarter, the strongest for that period since 2010. He said the near-term outlook stays positive, with hyperscaler spending feeding demand for memory chips and server-related products.
Ling said OCBC still sees upside to its full-year NODX forecast of 6 per cent, even if growth eases in the second half. “The global AI-investment momentum still appears to have some legs to run in the near term despite stock market jitters and gyrations,” she said.
Chua did flag one drag. Petrochemical exports will probably stay under pressure into the third quarter, he said, because renewed Middle East tensions are holding up feedstock supplies, and caution over transit through the Strait of Hormuz means conditions will take time to return to normal.
Sources
- Singapore’s key exports rise 20.7% in June, miss forecasts despite strong AI demand | The Straits Times
- Singapore's June non-oil exports rise 20.7% as AI demand stays robust | CNA
