Electronics imports continue to drop, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) reported on Tuesday, a trend seen by industry players as a sign of the country’s diminishing dependence on imported materials.
According to Seipi, from January to October, imports of electronics declined by 9.36 percent to $11.85 billion from $13.08 billion during the same period last year, as the total Philippine imports increased from $51.373 billion to $53.420 billion.
Dan C. Lachica, president of Seipi, credits this to the drop in imports of nine electronics products, including components/devices (semiconductors), down 11 percent; electronic data processing (EDP), down 9 percent; office equipment, down 1 percent; telecommunication, down 3 percent; communications/radar, down 4 percent; control/instrumentation, down 7 percent; and medical/industrial instrumentation, down 3 percent.
Only the automotive segment saw a staggering growth in the electronics industry, at 63 percent.
Lachica noted that the declining import figures should be seen as “a good sign that our dependence on imports is getting lower, while the value added is getting greater.”
On a month-on-month comparison, the drop is at 19 percent, as September figures showed electronic imports totaled $1.37 billion as opposed to $ 1.11 billion in October.
According to the Seipi statement, the drop can be attributed to the decrease in the following segments in particular: components/devices (semiconductors) control and instrumentation, and medical/industrial instrumentation, which fell by 28 percent, 15 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
The top import markets are China (13.8 percent), Japan (13.4 percent), the US (12.9 percent), Singapore (12 percent) and Taiwan (11.5 percent), Germany (9.5 percent), Hong Kong (7.5 percent), Korea (6.7 percent), Thailand (4.1 percent) and Malaysia (4 percent).
The electronics industry is the country’s largest importer with a share of 25 percent, followed by mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials at 16 percent
According to National and Economic Development Authority Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan, in terms of imports, other countries in Asia experienced a decline, such as Hong Kong (-1.2 percent), Taiwan (-1.4 percent), Indonesia (-2.2 percent), Republic of Korea (-3 percent), Thailand (-4.9 percent), Japan (-6.7 percent) and Singapore (-7.5 percent).