A LEADING group of foreign and local electronics firms in the country is upbeat on its exports projection this year.
“We’d like to hit $50 billion,” Cristjan Dave Bael, associate business lead for external affairs of Semiconductor & Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (Seipi), told reporters at a business forum on Friday.
Artificial intelligence will play a big part in the growth, he added.
Data from Seipi showed electronics exports rose 16.11 percent to $49.64 billion in 2025.
“We’re looking at a conservative 5 percent growth,” Bael said, noting that Seipi had a flat 12-percent growth forecast last year.
The low growth projection was based on US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on semiconductors also last year.
Bael said the electronics sector is in “wait-and-see mode” as it anticipates developments in the tariff policy of the US.
Last week, the US Supreme Court declared that tariff hikes imposed by US President Donald Trump in 2025 under an emergency powers act were unlawful.
Trump went on to announce that duties on all foreign imports would be raised to 10 percent, and then revised it to 15 percent on Saturday.
The 10 percent tariff, which took effect on Feb. 24, will run for 150 days.
Section 122 of the US Trade Act of 1974 allows surcharges within that period, unless extended by the Congress.
The country’s semiconductor products, which had been exempted from US tariffs in 2025, are not covered by the latest tariff rates, Bael said, quoting the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Seipi is reviewing the tariff rate to determine whether other electronic exports also exempted last year will still enjoy the same benefits.
In 2024, Philippine exports to the US totaled $14.2 billion, mostly electronics.
The US was likewise the biggest buyer of Philippine-made goods last month, with a share of $1.16 billion or 16.4 percent of the total in January this year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Meanwhile, even if the Philippines has yet to make AI chips, Bael said it is already producing commodities that support the periphery of the AI ecosystem, including infrastructure and power systems.