Electronic products top list of imports

ELECTRONIC products topped the list of imports in May, accounting for 24.8 percent or $1.672 billion of total import receipts.

Dan Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (Seipi), reported that electronics imports in May increased by 44 percent from the $1.157 billion recorded in the same month last year.

The increase was driven by the growth in eight of nine product sectors, namely control and instrumentation; telecommunication; consumer electronics; electronic data processing; medical/industrial instrumentation; communication/radar; components/devices (semiconductors); and office equipment.

Only one sector, automotive electronics, saw a drop in import receipts.

Compared to the previous month, electronics imports fell by 4.9 percent from the $1.758 billion recorded in April this year, as seven product sectors saw declines.

These were automotive electronics; medical/industrial instrumentation; telecommunication; office equipment; electronic data processing; control and instrumentation; and communication/radar.

Imports of consumer electronics and components/devices (semiconductors), meanwhile, increased.

Cumulatively, imports of electronic products rose by 38 percent to $8.979 billion in the first five months of the year, from the $6.51 billion recorded a year ago, as all nine electronics product segments saw increases for the period.

For May this year, the Philippines sourced the biggest volume of electronic products from the People’s Republic of China, which accounted for 15.8 percent of the country’s total imports for the month.

China was followed by Taiwan (14.5 percent); United States (12.7 percent); Japan (11.6 percent); and Singapore (10.9 percent).

Completing the list of top 10 markets were Republic of Korea (8.6 percent), Hong Kong (6.8 percent), Thailand (4.9 percent), Malaysia (3.6 percent) and Vietnam (3.5 percent).