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IMPORTS
rose almost 10 percent in February to $3.69 billion from
$3.36 billion last year on a steep rise of raw materials
and intermediate goods arrivals, yet manufacturing
output remained depressed.
Production indices of the Monthly Integrated Survey of
Selected Industries showed a 6-month continuing decline
in the Value of Production Index (VaPI) at 8.3 percent
and a 14-month contraction in the Volume of Production
Index (VoPI) at 10.3 percent, both in February 2007.
Over
half of the 20 manufacturing subsectors covered by the
survey particularly textiles, petroleum products,
machinery excluding electrical, tobacco, footwear and
wearing apparel, beverages and rubber products
registered double-digit contractions.
Import
figures for items such as textile, textile yarn,
fabrics, coal, coke and chemical compounds, which some
of the losing industries use as raw materials, were
curiously higher.
The
manufacturing survey estimated average capacity
utilization in February at 79.8 percent, with sectors
like machinery excluding electrical, electrical
machinery, paper and paper products, petroleum products
registering more than 80 percent utilization rates.
The
proportion of establishments that operated at full
capacity (90 percent to 100 percent) was 9.9 percent . .
. more than half, or 58.2 percent, of the establishments
operated at 70- percent to 89-percent capacity and 31.9
percent of the establishments operated below 70-percent
capacity, according to the survey.
Despite
a seeming contraction in manufacturing activity,
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri expressed
confidence of a more robust production in the coming
months.
“We
expect to have higher domestic production in the coming
months given the positive performance of our imports,”
said Neri, who is also director general of the National
Economic and Development Authority.
Neri
premised his optimism on a strong growth in inward
shipments of unprocessed and semiprocessed raw materials
and intermediate goods, which grew 96.1 percent to
$143.74 million and 26.3 percent to $1.58 billion,
respectively. For particular goods, imports of
electronics products, for example, rose 6.1 percent to
$1.71 billion from $1.61 billion last year.
Payments
for capital goods that may reflect increased capacity or
operational expansion slipped 7.3 percent to $1.11
billion from $1.2 billion last year. Commodities under
this group include power generating machines, office and
elect-ronic data processing machines, land transport
equipment, aircraft, and seacraft.
Major
source markets during the period were the United States
with $581.13 million in purchases, Japan with $457.7
million and Singapore with $324.09 million. --R.M. Balaba |
