Electronics, semicon imports up 32% in 2015

ELECTRONIC products remained the Philippines’ largest imports in December, accounting for 32 percent or $1.28 billion of the country’s total import receipts during the month.

Dan Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi), said in a statement that imports of electronic products in December 2015 showed a 30-percent decline compared to the $1.8 billion recorded for the same month in 2014.

“Three out of nine product sectors went down from (the previous)  year’s figures led by components/devices or semiconductors. The other two sectors that registered decreases (in import receipts) were automotive electronics and telecommunication,” Lachica reported.

“On the other hand, six sectors recorded increases led by the medical/industrial instrumentation segment, followed by control and instrumentation; office equipment; consumer electronics; communication/radar; and electronic data processing,” he said.

Compared to the previous month, electronic imports in December 2015 reflected a 40-percent decline compared to $2.13 billion worth of receipts recorded in November last year, as all nine produce sectors “posted negative growth.”

Cumulatively, imports of electronics and semiconductor products meanwhile rose by 32.09 percent to $20.2 billion in 2015 from $15.3 billion in 2014.

The growth can be attributed to the increase in import receipts across eight product sectors namely office equipment; control and instrumentation; communication/radar; telecommunication; medical/industrial instrumentation; components/devices (semiconductors); electronic data processing; and consumer electronics. Only imports of automotive electronics declined last year.

For December 2015, the Philippines’ top source for its electronics imports was the United States, which accounted for 16.1 percent of total import receipts during the month. The second biggest source was Japan (14.8 percent), followed by the People’s Republic of China (14.7 percent); Taiwan (13.8 percent) and Singapore (11.3 percent).