SINGAPORE: More multinational companies (MNCs) from Europe and North Asia are looking to set up bases in Singapore, amid efforts to expand their footprint across Southeast Asia.

According to the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), many of these firms are working with local companies to support their regional growth, drawn by Singapore’s strong ecosystem and capabilities in advanced manufacturing.

But with tariffs remaining a key concern, the association said firms need stronger support to navigate the uncertainty while staying competitive.

This comes amid the manufacturing industry being a main driver of Singapore’s gross domestic product growth for 2025, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Tuesday (Feb 10).

The ministry noted that, in particular, the electronics cluster of the manufacturing sector and the machinery, equipment and supplies segment of the wholesale trade sector grew robustly on account of strong artificial intelligence-related electronics demand.

GROWING DEMAND FROM SEMICONDUCTOR SECTOR

One Singapore manufacturing firm seeing growing interest from overseas companies is ATC Globe Holdings. It upgraded its facilities from 2023 to 2025 to better support high-value precision machinery work.

Its managing director Marcus Sia said demand from the semiconductor sector has picked up, prompting the firm to invest ahead of time.

“Our key customers for semiconductors – they already informed us, for the next few quarters, (manufacturing) is going to be ramped up,” he told CNA, adding that these clients have asked the company to prepare by making the necessary capital investments and recruitment plans.

“In fact, we already saw there's a slight increase in our semicon business right now. So partly also because of AI, (the business is) coming up very strong,” he added.

The firm, which provides plating and surfacing finishing services, expects to see ...