WASHINGTON: The Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) reported that electronic imports increased by 71.14 percent in January to $2.210 billion versus $1.291 billion in December, 2015, indicating a strong resurgence in the manufacturing sector.
Likewise, the electronics industry remained as the country’s top importer for the month of January, 2016, with total receipts of $ 2.210 billion, or 32.4 percent of the total Philippine imports of $6.825 billion.
SEIPI President Dan Lachica said that all of the nine sectors posted positive growth from the previous month’s figures, led by telecommunication at 177.18 percent, from $ 62.73 million in December 2015 to $173.88 million this January 2016.
Imported electronics items are mostly intermediate products or inputs used for final product manufacturing processes in the country. The manufacturing sector has grown an average of 8 percent over the past few years.
The remaining sectors that recorded increases were automotive electronics at 130.69, communication/radar at 80.79 percent consumer electronics at 77.98 percent, components/devices (Semiconductors) at 65.95 percent, electronic data processing at 59.23 percent, office equipment at 56.40 percent, medical/industrial instrumentation at 54.89 percent and control and instrumentation at 52.31 percent.
On a year on year basis, the January imports likewise grew considerably by 67.1 percent from $1.32 billion in January 2015 last year to $ 2.210 billion in January this year. Also 8 out of 9 product sectors went up from last year’s figures led by control and instrumentation at 219.1 percent, from $ 10.91 million last year to $ 34.80 million this year.
Other sectors that registered increases were medical/industrial instrumentation at 208.9 percent, office equipment at 182.3 percent, consumer electronics at 159.8 percent, electronic data processing at 81.8 percent, components/devices (semiconductors) at 64.4 percent, telecommunication at 51.0 percent and communication/radar at 30.3 percent.
Five countries comprising 90.7 percent of electronics imports for the month of January were: People’s Republic of China (16.9 percent), Taiwan (13.9 percent), United States Of America (12.8 percent), Japan (10.8 percent) and Singapore (9.9 percent). The remaining top ten markets were Republic of Korea (9.7 percent), Hong Kong (6.9 percent), Malaysia (4.2 percent), Thailand (3.8 percent) and Germany (1.9 percent).
