With electronics growth easing, robust orders for oil rigs and ship repair services helped sustain the expansion during the month in manufacturing, which accounts for a quarter of the trade-reliant economy.

April's growth compared with a revised year-on-year increase of 9 percent posted in March and was within analyst forecasts for a 3-8.4 percent rise.

Electronics production rose 9.8 percent from a year earlier but this was down sharply on the 19.5 percent gain in March, the board said in a statement.

The transport engineering cluster emerged as the month's star performer, growing 27 percent, "boosted by expansions in the marine and aerospace segments," the board said.

The marine and offshore segment grew 35 percent due to vigorous activity in ship repair, ship building, ship conversion and fabrication of oil rigs as oil exploration intensified worldwide due to high crude prices.

"Local and overseas demand for commercial aircraft repairs contributed to the 24.3 percent growth in the aerospace segment," the board added.

In April, the biomedicals sector contracted 12.1 percent, pulled down by a 14.6 percent fall in pharmaceuticals production. The decline in pharmaceuticals, which are often volatile figures, was due to a "different product mix" by drugs companies based here.

In the electronics cluster, a key component of the economy, data storage output jumped 31.8 percent while information and communications products and consumer electronics rose 38 percent.

However, semiconductor output climbed only 3.5 percent and computer peripherals shrank 10.3 percent.

Cumulative growth in the first four months of 2005 for the manufacturing sector as a whole was 3.7 percent.

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