SBMA says Subic exports, imports defy pandemic
Cooling fans, one of Subic Freeport’s top export products during the COVID-19 pandemic and used for ventilators, are being assembled at Sanyo Denki Philippines Inc. PHOTO FROM SBMA
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—While many businesses in the country reel from the financial impact of the pandemic, companies and port users in this economic zone saw an increase in exports and imports in the first three months of 2021, the head of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said on Tuesday (May 11).
In a statement , SBMA Administrator Wilma Eisma said Subic’s export value in the first quarter of 2021 hit $321.61 million, a 48-percent increase from 2020’s record in the same period. Eisma said imports also rose to $462.5 million, a 29-percent increase.
The first quarter 2021 export growth was higher by $104.31 million, compared to the $217.3-million record in the first quarter of 2020. First quarter 2021 import value was higher by $103.3 million than first quarter 2020’s $359.2 million.
“The growth in the first quarter of 2021 is very much significant when matched against last year’s records because we were not yet in a pandemic in the first two and a half months last year,” Eisma said.
“This means there are more winners than there were losers in Subic despite COVID-19, and that the SBMA’s thrust to make Subic enterprises more adaptive to changes under the new normal is also paying off,” Eisma said.
Japanese manufacturer Sanyo Denki Philippines Inc. emerged as the top performer among business locators in the free port for the first quarter of 2021.
The firm operates three factories at the Subic Techno Park that produce power supply units, cooling fans, servo amplifiers, and stepping motors. They posted a freight-on-board value of $79.5 million. That was almost 25 percent of total exports in Subic from January to March 2021, Eisma said.
She said Sanyo Denki was among the very few Subic locators allowed to continuously operate under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). This was to build cooling fans used for ventilators that were used for patients with severe cases of COVID-19.
