October exports grow 6.8% in surprise swing - Singapore

October exports grow 6.8% in surprise swing - Singapore

See-saw monthly growth pattern after 10.9% for Aug and 2.2% for Sept
By CHUANG PECK MING
THE see-saw monthly growth pattern in Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports continued in October, according to the latest figures released yesterday by International Enterprise Singapore.
This time, the NODX jumped by a higher-than-expected 6.8 per cent from a year ago. Growth pulled back from 10.9 per cent in August to 2.2 per cent in September.

Against the previous month, the NODX continued to fall in October, but at a more gentle rate. It slipped by a seasonally adjusted 0.2 per cent. The NODX fell 1.5 per cent month-on-month in September.
IE Singapore, which is the government’s trade promotion arm, attributed last month’s year-on-year growth in the NODX - which beat market expectations of 6.0 per cent - to stronger non-electronics shipments.

Non-electronic domestic exports, which rose by a healthy 12 per cent in September, picked up speed to post a 20 per cent gain, driven by domestic shipments of ships and boats, pharmaceuticals and non-monetary gold.

Domestic exports of electronic goods fell for the ninth straight month in October. But the drop eased from 8.3 per cent in September to 7.2 per cent.

‘The decline of electronic domestic exports was due to the lower domestic exports of ICs (integrated circuits), telecommunications equipment and disk drives,’ said IE Singapore in its report.

Except for consumer electronics, all electronics shipments continued to decline last month. Shipments of consumer electronics increased 15.6 per cent, slower than the 37.3 per cent jump in September.

Robert Prior-Wandesforde at HSBC Bank said that the underlying trend shows that the NODX is improving but only gradually, and pointed to its 3-month moving average growth of 6.5 per cent - the strongest since November 2006 and up from a low of -3.3 per cent in February.

‘(But) it is still far from the 20 per cent or so growth rates seen in the first half of 2006,’ he said in a brief report.

Ho Woei Chen at UOB Bank’s economics-treasury research department said that NODX’s growth for the first 10 months of this year is 3.6 per cent - well below the 5 to 7 per cent official forecast.

‘The stronger-than-expected pick-up in year-on-year expansion (in October) masked the weak growth momentum in NODX, which fell for the second consecutive month by 0.2 per cent month-on-month after adjusting for seasonal factors,’ she said.

‘We were expecting a rebound in month-on-month growth to 1.0 per cent in October, while the market’s forecast was a more bullish 2.0 per cent increase,’ Ms Ho said.

Shipments to the European Union and the United States - Singapore’s two largest export markets - fell last month. Domestic exports to the EU dropped 7.5 per cent, after an increase of 13 per cent in September.

Domestic exports to the US fell 1.7 per cent, a softer decline than in the previous month when shipments declined by 8.3 per cent.

Exports to Indonesia and Malaysia, which are among Singapore’s top 10 markets, also fell in October. But ships to six other top 10 markets rose, especially exports to China, Thailand and South Korea which made the biggest contributions to NODX’s growth last month.

Source : Business Times - 17 Nov 2007

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SingTel bags S’pore F1 title sponsorship

SingTel bags S’pore F1 title sponsorship

By Marc Lim, Sports Correspondent

THE world’s first Formula One night race will be known as the 2008 F1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix.
The Singapore telco - the Republic’s largest listed company - yesterday announced that it had secured the title sponsorship of next year’s inaugural Singapore F1 race, to be held on Sept 28.

SingTel Group CEO Chua Sock Koong said the telco was delighted at being a part of history - the race will be the first street grand prix in Asia, and the first in the world to be held under the stars.

SingTel declined to reveal the length of the sponsorship deal, or how much it was worth.

However, The Straits Times understands that about US$10 million (S$14.5 million) was needed to secure the naming rights.

The average cost of an F1 race’s title sponsorship is about US$8 million, though Spanish bank Banco Santander reportedly forked out just US$5.4 million for the naming rights for this year’s British Grand Prix.

Analysts said that it was understandable that the Singapore event would attract a bigger sponsorship, given its novelty as the sport’s first night race.

SingTel will get quite a lot of bang for its buck - a global audience of about 600 million is expected to watch the race live on TV. In addition, 120,000 spectators from all over the world are expected to be here for the race.

Ms Chua said as much in a statement: ‘The world is watching, and this is a great event upon which to position the SingTel brand on an international level, as well as reinforcing Singapore’s image as an exciting global city.’

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone also welcomed the news, adding that the sponsorship would ‘give SingTel the platform to achieve global recognition of their brand’.

SingTel, Asia’s biggest telecommunications group, reported earlier this month that revenues rose 10.9 per cent to $3.7 billion.

Growth was helped by strong performance from its investment in overseas telcos such as Australia’s No.2 mobile operator Optus and India’s Bharti Airtel.

However, the Singapore market - with revenue up 9.6 per cent at $1.21 billion, while net profits rose 3.7 per cent to $830 million - remains a very important component.

F1 will not be SingTel’s first foray into sports, having gone into local football with both the national team and Singapore’s professional league, the S-League.
Source : Straits Times - 17 Nov 2007

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