NON-ELECTRONICS DRIVE APRIL ’12 EXPORTS TO 7.6%

Serve as buffer against electronics decline, says Balisacan

MANILA—The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that the export of non-electronic products buffered the declining outward shipments of electronics and drove exports growth to 7.6 percent in April this year.

NEDAmade this statement after the National Statistics Office (NSO) announced that total export receipts increased to US$4.6 billion in April 2012 from US$4.3 billion in the same period a year ago. .

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said that non-electronic products have been registering a healthy position, and this was again seen in the latest exports figures.

“Except in 2009, non-electronics growth has averaged around 9.7 percent from 2002 to 2011 and has managed to post positive contribution to exports growth even during and following global crises,” said Balisacan, who is also NEDA Director-General.

He added that world consumption of consumer durables, which include goods that have high electronics component such as motor vehicles, home appliances and miscellaneous products like mobile phones, computers, etc., are normally low during economic downturns unlike demand for basic non-durable commodities such as food, capital goods, raw materials, and articles of apparel.

“Given the benign response of non-electronic exports to global weakness, programs and projects in the areas of financing, promotions and marketing, customs procedures, technological and industrial upgrading, and integration to local and international markets will be combined with intensified policy support to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the non-electronics industries,” said Balisacan.

According to the latest NSO data, electronics exports decreased from US$2.2 billion in April 2011 to US$1.6 in April 2012 due to lower receipts from semiconductors (-29.4%), electronic data processing units (-24.5%), automotive electronics (-94.6%), communication/radar (-26.2%), and consumer electronics (-0.4%).

“The decline in the country’s semiconductor exports reflected the developments in the global chip market in April 2012. According to industry sources, worldwide chip sales decreased by almost three percent year-on-year, from US$24.8 billion in April 2011 to US$24.1 billion in April 2012. Meanwhile, improved sales in other subsectors, such as telecommunication, control and instrumentation, office equipment and medical/industrial instrumentation, failed to buoy the receipts from electronics exports,” said Balisacan.

On the other hand, NSO revealed that exports growth in April 2012 was supported by higher receipts from manufactures (15.7%) and forest products (14.2%), which more than offset the lower value of outbound shipments of minerals (-45.9%), total agro-based products (-17.0%), and petroleum products (-6.0%).

“Renewed demand for manufactures can be traced to the improving economic activity in major advanced economies and sustained robust growth in most emerging and developing countries,” the Cabinet official said.

Balisacan said that the weak performance of exported agro-based products is due to reduced earnings from coconut products (-46.5%), as higher earnings from desiccated coconut (7.7%) and copra (488.1%) were not enough to cover the lower revenues from coconut oil (-53.9%) and copra meal/cake (-26.1%). 

“The negative outturn of the country’s coconut exports can be traced to both low volume of exports and decreased prices in the international market. Data shows that the weak performance of coconut oil exports may be attributed to slow demand for its end-products. At the same time, international prices of coconut oil and copra decreased by more than a third,” said Balisacan.

He also said that the drop in petroleum exports may be partially attributed to the potential decrease in yields of Galoc oil field in Palawan, which only resumed production in the beginning of April 2012 after its scheduled shutdown for the refurbishment of the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO).

Meanwhile, the NEDA chief said that major trade-oriented economies in East and Southeast Asia registered mixed exports performance in April 2012.

“Vietnam recorded the highest year-on-year growth (19.1%). Other countries which posted positive exports growth were Japan (10.7%), Hong Kong SAR (5.8%), People’s Republic of (PR) China (4.9%), and Singapore (3.5%). On the other hand, export contractions were seen in Taiwan (-6.4%), Indonesia (-1.3%), Malaysia (-1.7%), Thailand (-3.7%) and the Republic of Korea or ROK (-4.8%),” Balisacan said.

According to NSO, Japan was the top destination of the Philippine exports in April 2012, accounting for 15.9 percent of total export receipts. This was followed by the United States of America (14.6%), ROK (14.2%), PR China (10.7%) and Hong Kong SAR (8.8%). The share of total export revenues from PR China, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan accounted for 22.9 percent of the country’s total merchandise exports, while shipments to the ASEAN and European Union covered 16.9 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

MR No. 2012-045
15 June 2012