CDC posts $2.25-B export revenues

MANILA, Philippines - The Clark Development Corp. (CDC) announced yesterday that they have exceeded their 2014 target for exports after posting $2.258 billion in exports in 2011.

The CDC has breached the $2 billion export mark three years earlier than the target date set by state-owned firm.

CDC president Felipe Antonio B. Remollo said despite a decline in Philippine exports due to a worldwide economic slump last year, Clark-based enterprises were able to ship at least $2.258 billion worth of exports between January and December 2011.

Comparatively, Remollo said, the amount is a remarkable 55-percent increase from the $1.453 billion exports recorded in 2010.

According to Remollo, the $1.573 billion exports from Clark’s electronic sector helped propel the record surge.

This was followed by tire exports at $298 million and garments at $226 million.

Manufacturing firms contributed $131 million while aviation-related companies completed the top five exporting sectors with $13 million.

“The country’s export performance may not be altogether bleak as exports of the Clark Freeport Zone exceeded the $2 billion mark a good three years earlier than the target date set by the CDC,” Remollo said.

The 2011 export volume puts CDC on track in attaining the three major performance targets dubbed “3-2-1 Development Roadmap” for Clark where $3 billion is in investments, $2 billion in exports, and 100,000 jobs, which must be achieved by the state-run corporation by the year 2014.

 “With these developments in the exports sector, the present trends show that these targets are attainable much earlier than planned,” Remollo said.

Clark’s perennial top exporter, Nanox Philippines, Inc., remains at the top of the CDC’s list with exports of more than $791 million in custom-designed products such as Liquid Crystal Display panels, LCD modules, monochrome LCDs, and other related electronic parts.

They were followed by Phoenix Semiconductor Philippines Corp. (PSPC), a company established only in January 2010 by one of Korea’s leading provider of semiconductor packaging.

PSPC exported more than $566 million in electronic parts with DDR3, NAND, Flash Cards and SSD, as well as memory modules for PCs and notebooks.

Last year’s second top exporter, Yokohama Tires Philippines, Inc., was this year’s third largest Clark exporter with over $298 million in tires exports. Notwithstanding the slight drop in ranking, Yokohama’s export value is still 31 percent higher compared to that of last year.

Two more firms L&T International and SMK Electronic complete the list of top five Clark exporters with $145 million and $98 million in garments and electronics exports, respectively.

Other top exporters were HLD Clark Steel Pipe which exported more than $71 million to place sixth on the list of top exporters.

HLD Pipes is a Chinese metal pipe manufacturer which specializes in customized thread end pipes, scaffolding tubes, various weld pipes, and square tubes.

In terms of year-to-year growth, Clark’s “other manufacturing” sector generated the highest rate of increase of 195 percent by exporting $131 million in 2011 compared to only $44 million in the previous year.

Two other firms under this sector, Multi-Tek Fasteners Inc., a Taiwanese firm that is into manufacturing, rethreading, quality checking, repairing, surface treatment, repacking, exporting different types of screws, plugs, sockets, pipes, hubs, fasteners, and other related products, and Aderans Philippines Inc., a manufacturer of high quality, customized wigs, also made strong export contributions.

Other sectors which registered double to triple digit growth rates are services, tourism, aviation-related, electronics, tires and furniture.