Singapore July NODX falls 3.3%; petrochemical shipments dip 0.7%

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) in July declined 3.3% year on year, with shipments of petrochemicals and naphtha slipping 0.7% to S$1.25bn, official data showed on Monday.

The country’s exports of unsaturated ethylene surged 75% in value to 394,000 compared with the same period last year, although its naphtha shipments shrank 68% to S$12.6m, according to statistics from the International Exchange (IE) Singapore.

Meanwhile, methanol contributed S$9.97m to Singapore’s July 2014 exports.

Petroleum bitumen, ethylene glycol and paraxylene (PX) are the three biggest export contributors by value in the chemicals cluster in July at S$151.4m, S$141.8m and S$140.5m, respectively.

Among the country’s top 10 markets, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Japan registered the biggest declines in imports of Singapore products, according to International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.

July exports to the EU, China, Taiwan and the US, on the other hand, increased, it said.

“On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX rose by 2.5% in July 2014, following the previous month’s 1.5% increase,” IE Singapore said.

Singapore’s July NODX reached S$13.9bn, up from S$13.5bn recorded in June.

Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections