Despite the war induced global economic upheaval in February, Singapore’s export sector grew strongly in March 2026, largely due to surge in AI driven electronics exports, with Hong Kong becoming its top market for semiconductor shipments.
According to a report by Enterprise Singapore, non-oil domestic exports (NODX) increased by 15.3% in March compared to last year, driven largely by a sharp 74% surge in electronics exports this month.
Among the NODX, chips or integrated circuits (ICs) were the star performers with an overall trade of $1.7 billion alone in March 2026, witnessing a 113% surge.
Despite an uneven underlying momentum in markets, Singapore is becoming a key center for the global semiconductor and tech supply chain.
As the intense race for AI dominance between the US and China continues, the surge in shipments to Hong Kong comes amid growing scrutiny of Singapore as a potential transit point for advanced chips bound for China.
Statistics show that Hong Kong was the top export market for Singapore with $0.9 billion worth of semiconductor chips shipped in March this year. Similarly, Taiwan was at second position with $0.8 billion exports and China at $0.4 billion from Singapore.
However, not all sectors did well. Non-electronic exports fell slightly by 0.6%, although this was better than the bigger drop seen in February. Some products saw sharp declines. For example, exports of ship and boat structures dropped by 99.8%, and food preparations fell by 42%. Pharmaceutical exports also fell by 18.4%. Exports to various countries had mixed results. Shipments to Hong Kong grew by 99.4%, mainly because of strong semiconductor demand. Exports to Taiwan and China also increased.
On the other hand, exports to countries like the United States, Indonesia, Thailand, and the eurozone went down. Exports to the US fell by 2.7%, but this was a smaller drop compared to February.
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