Singapore's manufacturing output contracted 1.2 percent year on year in September, mainly due to a sharp shrink in biomedical manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said on Friday.

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, manufacturing output increased 0.5 percent, EDB said.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, manufacturing output declined 3.3 percent in September. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output rose 1.2 percent.

The biomedical manufacturing cluster's output decreased 10.3 percent in September this year, compared to the same period a year ago, while the medical technology segment expanded 28.1 percent, partly because of a low base last year.

However, the pharmaceuticals segment contracted 18.3 percent due to lower output in active pharmaceutical ingredients and biologics products.

The chemicals cluster's output rose 4.1 percent on a year-on- year basis in September. The petrochemicals segment recorded growth of 12.8 percent, partly due to multiple plant maintenance shutdowns in September last year.

Output of the transport engineering cluster rose 3.9 percent, mainly contributed by the marine & offshore engineering segment, which expanded 11.2 percent with higher levels of activities from rig building and oil field & gas field equipment production.

On the other hand, output of the aerospace segment fell 18.1 percent as repair job orders from commercial airlines remained weak.