Electronics accounted for 20% of import bill

MANILA, Philippines–Semiconductor and electronic products were the country’s second-largest imports in April next to fuel and lubricants, accounting for $1.03 billion or 20 percent of the total import bill for the month, according to the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi).

Seipi president Dan Lachica reported, however, that electronics imports were down 3 percent from the $1.07 billion registered in the same month last year, as six product sectors posted double-digit contractions.

These were EDP (electronic data processing), office equipment, consumer electronics, telecommunications, control and instrumentation and medical/industrial instrumentation.

Lachica said in a separate text message that the decline in imports could have been caused by such factors as the continuing congestion at the Port of Manila due to the truck ban policy being implemented in the city, as well as the high and unpredictable power costs in the country.

Compared with the previous month, imports of semiconductor and electronics products fell by 14 percent in April from the $1.21 billion registered in March.

Out of the nine electronic products, only one sector—medical/industrial instrumentation—posted an increase of 8.36 percent.

For the first four months of the year, cumulative imports of semiconductor and electronics products increased by 2.31 percent to $4.83 billion, from the $4.73 billion posted in the same period last year.

“Despite the decline of five of the nine product sectors, components/devices (semiconductors), office equipment, and automotive electronics grew at 8 percent, 12 percent and 68 percent, respectively,” Lachica added.

Singapore was the country’s largest source, accounting for 15.3 percent of the Philippines’ total semiconductor and electronics imports; followed by Germany (13.6 percent); People’s Republic of China (13.1 percent); Japan (11.2 percent); and the United States, (10.6 percent).

Other countries of origin were Republic of Korea (7.9 percent), Taiwan (7.1 percent), Malaysia (6.3 percent), Hong Kong (5.4 percent) and Thailand (2.7 percent), Lachica added.