Electronics exports start recovering lost grounds

MANILA, Philippines - The recovery has not been spectacular, but the country’s electronics industry has been inching up since the month of March.

This was the assessment given to the Philexport News and Features by Arthur Young Jr., chairman of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. (SIEPI), the biggest export industry in the Philippines.

“The lowest ebb suffered by the industry was the last quarter of last year and the first two months of this year. The decline has been bottoming out since March,” said Young only days before official government report on exports for the month of April are to be released.

He explained that total performance in March, although still lower than the same month in 2008, already inched up by 6.5 percent compared to exports in the previous month of February.

Total exports this year may still be lower than in 2008, he explained. But by the third quarter, he expects that total sales will be higher than sales for the third quarter of last year when the industry suffered a double-digit retreat.

As a result of the slow recovery, companies are beginning to recall to work employees who were sent on extended leave at the height of the trade slowdown. 

“We are going to win back lost grounds by next year or in 2011, depending on how fast the demand for electronics products kick up in major market,” he said. This would mean that by next year at the earliest, the industry would be enabled to export a total of $31 billion, its peak yearly export sale before the global recession hit our shores.

The industry has stopped retrenchments as a strategy, he intimated. In fact, there were just a few companies that closed shop, but it was the media that sensationalized the situation, Young claimed.

Demonstrating the industry’s confidence in the local economy, he said SEIPI and the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) have teamed up to launch an international investment promotions campaign that zeroes in on the high quality of Philippine workers.

He said that the team expects the investment promotions campaign to target new locators in the field of electronics manufacturing and business process outsourcing. – Philexport News and Features