Exporters see slight hike in shipments this year

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport)  expects the country’s shipments to increase this year but not at a dramatic rate,  citing the effects of geopolitical issues.

“I might be extrapolating, but it will be coming from a lower base so it will increase a little in percentage but it will not be dramatic,” Philexport president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said at a recent forum.

“Our exports are growing very slowly. It is the effect of the geopolitics to the extent that our supply chain is affected mainly because our biggest trade partners were affected, China, slowed down in a way. It affected us,” he said.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the country’s total export sales increased by 5.7 percent to $78.98 billion in 2022.

The growth rate is lower than the 14.5 percent increase registered the year before.

“But we are still okay. Hopefully, there are some items in our exports that could be developed further like initially mining for instance, it is something we’re  looking at,” Ortiz-Luis said.

He cited the potential of the country to tap its mineral resources, citing that many industrial countries like Japan and China rely on these minerals, particularly nickel.

“We should have processing of our ores here rather than simply exporting ores. We should be able to export processed ores like nickel,” Ortiz-Luis said.

Meanwhile, asked to comment on the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (SEIPI)’s flat growth projection in electronics exports for the year, Ortiz-Luis said this may be due to supply chain issues.

“The problem is that supply chain has been very much affected by the world geopolitical problems,” Ortiz-Luis said.

PSA data showed that electronic products continued to be the country’s top export commodity group in 2022 with total earnings of $45.66 billion, which accounted for 57.8 percent of the total exports during the period. This was 7.4 percent higher than the $42.50 billion electronics export earnings in 2021.

However, SEIPI president Dan Lachica told reporters that electronics exports have been declining in the earlier part of the year, noting that the decline has reached as high as 15 percent.