The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) now expects export revenues to go beyond the 5-percent growth target for the year with the lifting of the truck ban.
Dan Lachica, Seipi president, confirmed in a text message that going beyond the 5-percent goal is now possible, although this still hinges on the full decongestion of the Manila ports.
He did not give an exact growth figure yet, as third-quarter numbers must first be evaluated to get a revised projection.
However, Lachica said in an earlier interview before the lifting of the controversial truck ban that exports of semiconductor and electronic
products would not likely grow beyond 5 percent, as companies are incurring huge losses and delays in the receipt and delivery of materials.
Member-companies of Seipi were reportedly losing $20,000 to $100,000 a week as a result of the delays and additional operation costs.
Now that the window for further growth has been opened, Seipi is pushing to resolve outstanding problems that may hinder the clearing of overstaying containers at the ports of Manila, a problem that has been present since late 2013, but which has worsened due to the truck ban.
“[Decongestion of the ports] will also depend on other things, such as: Will other cities like Caloocan be allowed to have truck bans? Will other shipping lines be allowed to work on weekends? Will 24-hour single lanes on C5 be properly implemented, meaning trucks can use all lanes outside of Metro Manila truck-ban hours? The effect will be positive when we see the full effect on port decongestion,” Lachica said.
He said even with the truck ban lifted, clearing the ports may take until January now that pre-Christmas shipments are coming up.
Aside from the truck ban, power is still a prevalent issue that is worrying member-companies, the Seipi president earlier noted.
According to July export data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, electronic products remain the top export with total receipts of $2.090 billion, accounting for 38.3 percent of the total export revenues in July 2014, which amounted to
$5.461 billion.
By major groups of electronic products, Components/Devices (Semiconductors), comprised 26.5 percent of the total exports and shared the biggest, with export earnings worth $1.450 billion.