Electronics still PH’s top export earner in July

Electronics continued to be the country’s top export in July, accounting for 53 percent of total receipts during the said period, according to the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi).

Seipi president Dan Lachica said electronics exports grew by 35 percent to $2.82 billion in July, from $2.09 billion a year ago.

The strong revenue performance can be attributed to the positive growth recorded in four electronics industry subsectors: telecommunication; components/devices (semiconductors); consumer electronics, and office equipment.

Three other product segments, however, recorded decline in receipts. These are control and instrumentation; electronic data processing, and medical/industrial instrumentation.

Compared to the previous month, the industry’s export performance in July showed a 10-percent hike from $2.6 billion worth of receipts posted in June this year.

“Three out of nine product sectors grew from last month’s figures with automotive electronics posting the biggest growth rate (in export receipts) of 43.11 percent from $7.52 million last June to $10.76 million in July. The other sectors that recorded increases were components/devices (semiconductors) at 19.62 percent and communication/radar at 12.56 percent,” Lachica said.

Cumulative exports of electronic products rose by 9.1 percent to $16.3 billion from the $14.9 billion recorded in the same period last year.

“The positive growth was brought about by the increase in six electronic product groups, led by office equipment segment; telecommunication; medical/industrial instrumentation; components/devices (semiconductors); consumer electronics; and communication/radar,” Lachica said.

Lachica said the country’s top five export destinations were China, which captured 22.6 percent of the country’s electronic products exports; followed by Hong Kong (with a 15.93 percent share); United States (11.25 percent); Japan (10.89 percent), and Singapore (9.35 percent).

Lachica said in an earlier interview that Seipi had slashed its growth targets for this year anew as it expected exports of electronics products to post flat growth this year given the soft global market and China’s economic woes.

Lachica told the Inquirer that Seipi was now looking at a growth of 0-5 percent. It was only last month that the group had slashed its export growth target to 3-5 percent, down from the original forecast set early this year of 5-7 percent.

Hong Kong and China account for more than 30 percent of exports, Lachica said.

The group, however, remained hopeful of a better export performance in the second half of the year to help boost the numbers for 2015.