SEIPI eyes 6% growth for electronics sector

MANILA, Philippines - The electronics industry is seen to grow five to six percent next year from an expected flat growth this year as new plants start their operations, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) said.

In a statement yesterday, the SEIPI said it expects the industry to expand next year, supported by the start of operations of new plants involved in the production of electronic products and parts in the country.

“The industry projects it will grow five to six percent in 2013 due to new plant facility transfers of some electronics companies in the Philippines and investments made during the previous year which will make the plants operational by next year,” SEIPI president Ernesto Santiago said.

Electronics firms from other countries are setting up facilities here given the competitive costs as well as availability of labor.

For this year, SEIPI projects a flat or zero growth.

“The projected flat growth would be attained since there was a low base of electronics exports in November ($1.52 billion) and December ($ 1.51 billion) of last year,” he said.

Among the factors that brought the industry to a flat growth are depressed export market, weak consumer electronics demand, high cost of power and strong peso.

Exports of electronic products reached $23.72 billion last year, down 23.67 percent from 2010.

Latest data from the National Statistics Office showed electronics exports for October reached $1.9 billion, up 3.79 percent from September.

Electronics shipments likewise posted a 0.28 percent increase from the same month last year.

Cumulative electronics exports data for the January to October period reached $19.32 billion, down 6.56 percent from last year.

SEIPI noted though that the discrepancy in automotive electronics exports due to change of tariff code is not yet counted in the electronics exports data released by the statistics agency.

The SEIPI initially set a 10-to 15- percent growth target for exports of electronic products this year.

In July, SEIPI cut the growth projection to five to seven percent citing a weak global recovery affecting demand for shipments.