January 7, 2004 – A Filipino trade group representing domestic electronics firms is protesting the latest government figures for November’s electronics exports, calling them “strange” and “impossible,” according to a report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines Inc. (Seipi) says growth from a majority of its members, including domestic operations of Texas Instruments and Amkor, do not fit the statistics released this week by the National Statistics office, which claims that electronics and semiconductor were $2.012 billion in November, a 10.2% drop from a year ago. Seipi executive director Ernesto Santiago claimed that the industry is maintaining its prediction of $24.3 million in exports for all of 2003, which would be roughly flat with 2002.

Exports from all industries were down nearly 5% in November to $2.95 billion, with lessened demand from the US (down 29%) and a pickup in demand from Japan and China (up 20% and 66%, respectively).