PHILIPPINE electronics exports rose 5.91% year on year to $4.21 billion in August, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) said.
However, the industry association’s president Danilo C. Lachica told BusinessWorld that he continues to expect exports to be little changed over the full year.
In August, Mr. Lachica said SEIPI revised its export growth forecast from 5% to 0% in 2023 after a 6% decline in exports in the first six months.
Five product categories increased their exports in August, led by medical or industrial instrumentation, where shipments rose 48.61% to $23.78 million, followed by telecommunication (26.48%), communication or radar (20.22%), semiconductor components or devices (14%), and office equipment (10.65%).
On the other hand, some segments posted declines, led by automotive electronics (-32.08%), electronic data processing (-30.87%), consumer electronics (-5.40%), and control and instrumentation (-2.44%).
Month on month, electronics exports rose 6.58% from the $3.95 billion posted in July.
However, electronics exports in the eight months to August declined 3.6% to P29.35 billion. During this period, electronics accounted for 61.4% of all Philippine exports.
Five categories recorded declining exports in the first eight months, led by automotive electronics, which declined 65.89% to $25.01 million, followed by office equipment (-36.67%), electronic data processing (-32.94%), telecommunication (-17.94%), and controls and instrumentation (-1.59%).
Meanwhile, four categories recorded an improvement in exports, such as medical or industrial instrumentation (25.38%), communication or radar (19.64%), consumer electronics (13.62%), and semiconductor components or devices (0.68%).
Hong Kong was the top export destination, accounting for 18.46% of electronics exports, followed by the US (13.54%), China (9.06%), Japan (7.63%), and Singapore (5.9%).
The rest of the top 10 destinations were the Netherlands (5.3%), South Korea (5.1%), Taiwan (4.63%), Germany (4.26%), and Malaysia (3.51%). — Justine Irish D. Tabile
