Industrial News

The Philippines’ exports and imports would take a hit from muted global demand coupled with penny-pinching domestic consumers amid high prices, said Moody’s Analytics. “Trade will be weak over coming months as foreign households pull back spending,” Moody’s Analytics said in a July 14 report released on Monday. This was despite a surprise 1.9 percent exports growth in May which ended five straight months of year-on-year drops, the think tank said, citing the government’s latest external trade data. Also, “high borrowing costs and elevated inflation will pinch local households, hurting imports,” Moody’s Analytics added. Filipinos are mostly dependent on imported [...]

New research from Omdia reveals that the semiconductor market declined in revenue for a fifth straight quarter in the first quarter of 2023. Source: Omdia This is the longest recorded period of decline since Omdia began tracking the market in 2002. Revenue in Q1 2023 settled at US$120.5B, down 9% from Q4 2022. The semiconductor market is cyclical, and this prolonged decline follows the upsurge as the market grew to record revenues in each quarter between Q4 2020 through Q4 2021 following increased demand from the global pandemic. The memory and micro processor chips (MPU) market are major areas of the [...]

Food conglomerate Monde Nissin Corp. started work on a P1.2-billion production plant in Davao, Mindanao that will expand its bakery and biscuit business. Monde said the new factory, which opens in February 2024, will add capacity to its existing manufacturing facility that has been supplying the region with its flagship Lucky Me! instant noodles. It will include a bakery and biscuits facility to produce brands like Butter Coconut and Monde Mamon. The company said the project, described as having “highly automated” operations, will create an additional 500 jobs. “This expansion not only enhances our manufacturing capacity but also strengthens our [...]

MANILA, June 15 (Reuters) - China's Yadea Group Holdings (1585.HK), one of the world's biggest electric two-wheeled vehicle makers, plans to invest about $1 billion in an e-motorcycle factory in the Philippines, the country's investment promotions agency chief said on Thursday. Yadea is one of a several electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers looking at the Southeast Asian nation for expansion of their manufacturing sites, Tereso Panga, director-general of government-run Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), told reporters. Yadea, which has six production hubs in China and one in Vietnam with an annual capacity of more than 12 million vehicles, did not immediately respond [...]

Total Foreign Investments (FI) approved in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to PhP 172.70 billion from PhP 8.98 billion in the same quarter of 2022. These investments were pledges from the following Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs), namely: Board of Investments (BOI), Clark Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). No foreign investment approvals for the quarter were reported by Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), BOI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BOI-BARMM), Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), Poro Point Management Corporation (PPMC), Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and Clark International Airport Corporation [...]

THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) said it is hoping to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) in areas of advanced manufacturing and electric vehicles, among others, as it pins its hopes on the United States to make the country an alternative location for US firms wishing to offshore their manufacturing activities. “The Philippines could be a viable site for US-based companies from North America or those American offshore companies shifting out production from their existing locations to take advantage of the country’s growing domestic market, huge pool of world-class and work quality-oriented workers, and as a production and distribution hub in [...]

WASHINGTON—The Ayala Group's Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. and Zero Motorcycles based in California have signed a memorandum of agreement for the setting up of the first electronic vehicle (EV) motorcycle manufacturing site in the Philippines, the Presidential Communications Office has said. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who's on an official visit to Washington, witnessed the signing of the MOA. Among those who attended the meeting for the IMI include Ayala Corporation chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel De Ayala and Automotive and Industrial regional manager Dave Corry. Zero Motorcycles, on the other hand, were represented by its chief executive officer Sam Paschel and  Alex [...]

MANILA  -Global technology firm Dyson is investing P11 billion in a new research and manufacturing center in the Philippines, as part of a larger expansion plan in Asia and Europe. The Singapore-based company on Wednesday said its planned technology center— which will span the equivalent of 92 basketball courts—would be located in First Philippine Industrial Park in Sto. Tomas, Batangas and should start operations in 2024. It will bring together their research, development and advanced motor manufacturing capabilities under one roof. “The new campus in Sto. Tomas, Batangas will be one of the largest investments and most advanced technology manufacturing [...]

The Philippines has issued the implementing rules and regulations for the amendments to the Public Service Act. The Act allows for 100 percent foreign ownership of public services in the country such as railways and airports. The Philippines government issued the implementing rules and regulations to the Public Service Act in late March 2023, which is set to impact foreign ownership of public services in the Philippines. The Public Service Act allows 100 percent foreign ownership of public services in the Philippines. However, the Act was amended in February 2022 to clearly define the difference between public services and public utilities, since [...]

Taiwan-based printed circuit board (PCB) makers have expedited transferring manufacturing away from China, with several establishing new plants or extending current lines in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Industry insiders pointed out that PCBs do not garner the same welcome as semiconductors, due to wastewater issues and because the PCB industry consumes large quantities of energy and water. Thailand According to Woranath Khemasiri, secretary general of Southeast Asia and India Business Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Thailand has continued to improve its PCB industry manufacturing value chain by providing investment incentives, such as lower manufacturing costs and stable water [...]