Electronic products make up 21% of PH import bill

SCREENGRAB from www.seipi.org.ph

Semiconductor and electronic products remained the country’s second largest imports in July, accounting for $1.14 billion, or about 21 percent, of the total import bill that month, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) said late Thursday.

Overall, imports declined by almost 30 percent in July compared to the $1.63 billion posted in the same month last year. This was due to the contraction in import receipts in five product sectors: Components/devices; electronic data processing (EDP); office equipment; telecommunications; and control and instrumentation, Seipi president Dan Lachica said in a report.

Factors that contributed to the decline in the import bill were concerns over power availability, cost and reliability; and logistics, specifically, the problem of port congestion, Lachica said.

“While the Manila truck ban has been lifted and mitigation measures are in place, the congestion may not be relieved until another three to four months more, with the expected heavy shipping volumes during the holidays,” he explained.

Compared to the previous month, however, imports of semiconductor and electronics products showed a 29-percent increase in July from the $885.83 million recorded in June 2014. This was due to the rise in import receipts posted by six product sectors: Components/devices; EDP; office equipment; consumer electronics; control and instrumentation; and automotive electronic.

Seipi noted a decline in imports of three other product sectors—telecommunications; communications/radar; and medical/industrial instrumentation.

Cumulative imports of semiconductor and electronics products were still lower by 6.62 percent at $8.15 billion in the first seven months of 2014, from the $8.73 billion posted a year ago. Seipi said eight of the nine electronic product sectors posted negative growth rates, tempered by the 62-percent surge in the imports of the automotive sector during the January-July period.

The United States was the Philippines’ largest country source, accounting for 17.3 percent of the total semiconductor and electronics imports; followed by Singapore (12.3 percent); Taiwan (12.1 percent); China (10.4 percent); and Germany (9.7 percent). Rounding up the top ten markets were Japan (accounting for 9.2 percent of the country’s total import bill); Korea (8.7 percent); Hong Kong (5.2 percent); Malaysia (4.7 percent); and Thailand (4.5 percent).