Electronics exports rose 18% to $2.22B in April

Electronic products remained the country’s top export in April, accounting for 50.6 percent of the total Philippine receipts posted for the month, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) said.

In a report, Seipi president Dan Lachica noted that exports of electronic products grew 17.8 percent to $2.22 billion in April this year from $1.88 billion in the same month in 2014.

“Four electronic product sectors posted a positive growth rate, namely office equipment at 143.9 percent; components/devices (semiconductor) at 26.6 percent; medical/industrial instrumentation at 14.9 percent, and communication/radar at 1.48 percent,” Lachica said.

The components/devices category had the biggest contribution of 38.1 percent in April, which was equivalent to export earnings of $1.67 billion.

Compared to the previous month, electronics exports in April fell by 4.94 percent.

“Among the major groups of electronic products, seven out of nine (categories) dropped (compared to) last month’s figures, namely telecommunication, consumer electronics, electronic data processing, automotive electronics, office equipment, communication/radar and control and instrumentation. In contrast, growth was seen in medical/industrial instrumentation and components/devices,” Lachica explained.

On a cumulative basis, exports of electronic products rose 6.2 percent in the first four months of the year to $8.6 billion from $8.1 billion a year ago. Four of the nine product sectors—office equipment, telecommunication, communication/radar, and components/devices—posted increases in export receipts during the period.

Meanwhile, Lachica reported that the country’s top five export destinations were Hong Kong, which bought 17.94 percent of the country’s electronic products exports, followed by the United States (12.12 percent), China (10.89 percent), Singapore (10.55 percent) and Japan (10.25 percent).

For this year, the Philippine semiconductor and electronics industry is forecast to grow by 5-7 percent, fueled largely by a strong demand in the global automotive and mobile phone markets.