Semiconductor firm earmarks $10.25M to upgrade Clark facilities

SFA Semicon Philippines Corp. (SSP) is spending $10.25 million to upgrade its manufacturing capabilities to meet growing demand.

In a stock exchange filing on Tuesday, the company said its board had approved the spending to partly finance its five-year investment roadmap.

“The [updated investment plan] aims to replace fully depreciated machineries and equipment in SSP phase 1 facility and to upgrade as well as purchase new production equipment in SSP’s phase 1 and phase 2 manufacturing facilities in Clark Freeport Zone,” the company said.

Earlier, SSP declared cash dividends of $2.56 million to be paid to shareholders on record as of March 17 this year. The payment date has been set for April 14.

“In its meeting on Feb 17, 2023, the board unanimously declared cash dividend of $2,563,748.00 out of SSP’s unrestricted retained earnings as of Dec 31, 2022, to give the shareholders returns on their investment,” Dong Hwan Im, SSP chair and president, said in the filing.

Last January, Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. president Danilo Lachica said their exports could grow by 9 percent for the year.

He said they were targeting $50 billion worth of exports by the end of 2023.

Electronics accounted for 64.3 percent of the country’s total exports in November of last year, reaching $4.57 billion during that month alone.

In 2021, the Philippines’ electronics exports reached $45.92 billion, accounting for 61.52 percent of annual commodity exports.