In January, import bill rose by 28.25% year-on-year

Semiconductor and electronics products continued to make up the bulk of the country’s imports in January this year, accounting for $1.65 billion, or 32 percent, of the total import bill for the month, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) said.

In a report, Seipi president Dan Lachica revealed that the industry’s imports in January reflected a 28.25-percent increase from the $1.29 billion recorded in the same month last year.

This boost was due to the double-digit growth in import receipts for components/devices (semiconductors, up by 35.47-percent rise); electronic data processing (up by 46.5 percent); control and instrumentation (up by 20.29 percent); and automotive electronics (up by 12.52 percent).

But the January imports of semiconductor and electronics dropped by 9.8 percent from the $1.83 billion recorded in December 2014. Data from Seipi showed that imports of several produce segments declined, including electronics products (down by 11 percent); components/devices (down by 15 percent); electronic data processing (down by 1 percent); control and instrumentation (down by 2 percent); and medical and industrial instrumentation (down by 23 percent).

According to the industry group, the country’s top import source was Germany, which accounted for 18.5 percent of the electronics and semiconductor products imported in January, followed by Singapore (15.2 percent); Taiwan (13 percent); the United States (12.3 percent) and People’s Republic of China (10.1 percent).

The other top sources of the Philippines were Japan (which accounted for 6.8 percent of total import receipts for electronics and semiconductor products), Korea (6.7 percent), Hong Kong (5.7 percent), Malaysia (3.7 percent), and Thailand (2.7 percent).