Electronics exports may grow 5% this year

MANILA, Philippines — Despite electronics exports declining in the first half of the year, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (SEIPI) remains optimistic that the industry will grow by five percent, driven by the continued demand for electronics products.

In an interview with reporters, SEIPI president Dan Lachica said the group is keeping its five percent electronics export target for the year.

Figures from SEIPI’s website showed that electronics exports fell by 15.3 percent to $9.97 billion, 15.29 percent lower than the $11.77 billion electronics exports in the same period last year.

The decline was driven by the 74.8 percent decrease in automotive electronics exports to $9.27 million from $36.92 million in the first quarter of last year.

This was followed by office equipment (45.54 percent), electronic data processing (27.55 percent), telecommunication (18.25 percent) and semiconductor components/devices (16.69 percent).

In contrast, the export of consumer electronics gained 16.71 percent, rising to $268.92 million from $230.41 million.

This was followed by medical/industrial instrumentation (9.39 percent), control and instrumentation (1.9 percent) and communication/radar (1.53 percent).

“But we’re not changing our five percent forecast (for electronics exports growth). Maybe ballpark figure, close to five percent. But for now, we just had a board meeting two weeks ago, and we’re still maintaining that number,” Lachica said, adding that they expect exports to catch up in the remainder of the year.

Last year, electronics exports hit a record high of $49.09 billion, up by 6.88 percent from 2021

Asked what will be the drivers of the growth for this year, Lachica said demand for electronic products has already recovered from the pandemic.

“The demand has recovered. It’s a global industry. You have electronics products all over you. I mean, new technologies, AI (artificial intelligence), big data, e-vehicles so there’s still a lot of demand for electronic products,” Lachica said.

Lachica earlier cited the demand for automotive and industrial products as among the drivers of electronics exports this year.

The electronics industry remains a significant driver of the country’s economic growth.

Electronic exports accounted for bulk or 62.27 percent of the country’s $78.84 billion worth of total outbound commodity shipments last year.

As of the first quarter of the year, electronics exports accounted for 59.2 percent of the country’s exports.