SEIPI keeps 7-11% growth forecast for electronic exports in 2014

MANILA, Philippines - The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) is keeping its seven to 11 percent growth projection for total electronic exports in 2014 amid positive performance of the sector in the January to November period.

“With a month to go, 2014 full-year export growth is expected to be in the seven to 11 percent range.  At the end of the year, the industry is looking at total electronic exports between $23.3 billion to $24.2 billion,” the SEIPI said in an email sent to reporters.

The group had an initial forecast of five percent growth for electronic shipments for full-year 2014 from $21.823 billion in 2013.

In the third quarter of last year, the SEIPI hiked its industries growth forecast to five to eight percent and raised the projection anew in December to seven to 11 percent, citing strong global demand for electronic products.

Latest available data showed that cumulative exports of electronic products grew by 7.95 percent to $23.50 billion as of end-November 2014 from $21.77 billion in the same period in 2013.

This, as exports of almost all electronic products increased, except for automotive electronics that decreased by 58.8 percent.

The big gainers are EDP (electronic data processing)  at 30.2 percent, office equipment at 31.7 percent, consumer electronics at 15.9 percent, communication/radar at 41.5 percent, control and instrumentation at 130.2 percent and medical/industrial instrumentation at 92.1 percent.

For the month of November alone, outbound shipments of electronic products rose by 27 percent to $2.55 billion in 2014 from $2 billion in the same month in 2013.

The top five destinations of the country’s electronic exports were Taiwan (17.8 percent), Hong Kong (15.8 percent), Japan (13 percent), United States of America (10.5 percent) and China (10.5 percent).

“The industry is recovering and will perform even better once we resolve the port congestion problem,” the SEIPI said.

Another growth driver for electronic exports is the telecom sector particularly smart phones, tablets and connectivity.

“The momentum is expected to continue to 2015 albeit at a modest single-digit growth projection of five to seven percent,” the SEIPI said.