Electronics imports remain weak

MANILA, Philippines - Imports of electronic products dropped 11 percent in October from a year ago, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) said.

In a statement, SEIPI said electronics imports declined to $1.11 billion in October from $1.25 billion in the same month last year.

The group attributed the drop to contractions posted by four electronic products components/devices (semiconductors) (16 percent), communication/radar (34 percent), control and instrumentation (14 percent) , and medical/industrial instrumentation (eight percent).

Electronic products accounted for the biggest share in the country’s total imports in October at 25 percent.

For the January to October period this year purchases of electronic products from overseas fell 9.36 percent to $11.85 billion from the previous year’s $13.08 billion.

Seven out of nine electronic product sectors declined, namely components/devices (semiconductors) at 11 percent, EDP (electronic data processing) at nine percent, office equipment at one percent, telecommunication at three percent, communication/radar at four percent, control/instrumentation at seven percent and medical/industrial instrumentation at three percent.

Only the automotive sector grew significantly for the 10-month period at 63 percent.

The country’s top five sources of electronic products are: China (13.8 percent), Japan (13.4 percent), USA (12.9 percent), Singapore (12 percent) and Taiwan (11.5 percent).

Earlier this month, SEIPI hiked its growth forecast for electronic exports to seven to 11 percent this year from a previous projection of five to eight percent.

“The five to eight percent, we’ve come up with that revision last quarter. Given information that we have today, we are upgrading to seven to 11 percent for 2014,” SEIPI president Dan Lachica said.

The upward revision on electronic exports was made amid demand for electronic products for smartphones and the automotive industry.

At the beginning of the year, SEIPI had an initial forecast of five percent growth for electronic shipments this year from $21.823 billion in 2013.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that for the January to October period, electronic exports reached $20.953 billion this year, six percent higher than the $19.764 billion in the same period last year.

For 2015, SEIPI expects electronic exports to grow just five to seven percent citing base effect.