(+632) 8525-9775    wecare@excelsior.ph

Top 5 Products Exported by The Philippines

excelsior on September 15, 2019

Top 5 Products Exported by The Philippines

The Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia that is rich in natural resources. Several of these resources are quite rare in some areas of the world, which gives the Filipinos an opportunity to earn a living by converting it into products that we export today.

If you’re one of those business folks who are either looking for an ideal line of products to sell in an international scale or in the verge of expanding your business internationally, this article is for you. In addition to looking for a suitable freight forwarding company to keep your supply chain up and going, you must also familiarize yourself in five of the top-selling products exported by the Philippines:

  1. Gems, and other precious metals

As recent as last year, the Philippines was able to accumulate an amount of $1.5 billion in exporting precious metals and gems on international markets. According to records, the leading and most expensive precious metal in the country is gold. The amount of gold exported from the Philippines is ten times greater than the amount spent by importers who bring gold into the archipelago.

Additionally, there is also a growing demand in pearls found in various seas of the Philippines. Those that were produced by the largest immobile bivalve mollusk in the world, Tridacna Gigas can weigh over 34kg and can be a couple of feet long. Filipino pearl exporters earned an amount of $15.3 million by selling pearls globally. As for gems, organic gemstones are also on the rise, with exporters making a million dollars per year.

  1. Fruits, nuts

Examples of fruits and nuts that are widely exported in the Philippines are coconut, banana, pineapple, soursop (guyabano), papaya, guava, calamansi, tamarind, peanuts, among others. Filipino cultivators of these fruits earn a total amount of $2.1 billion, which comprises 3.3% of overall exports from the country. The Philippines is the second-largest coconut user on the world, next only to Indonesia.

  1. Optical, technical, and medical apparatus

Aside from natural resources like fruits nuts, gems, and other precious metals, the Philippines is also a competitive exporter of tools and equipment used in the medical field. Filipino manufacturers of these products gained a whopping $2.2 billion from international buyers around the globe.  Examples of this equipment are:

  • Optical Fibres, Optical Fibre Bundles, and Cables
  • Photographic Cameras; Photographic Flashlight Apparatus
  • Oscilloscopes, Spectrum Analysers
  • Liquid Crystal Devices, Lasers
  • Other measuring or checking instruments and machines

  1. Machinery, i.e., computers

Machinery and computers that are widely used in some parts of the world actually came from the Philippines. These can range from office machine parts, integrated circuits, semiconductor devices, insulated wires, and even whole computers itself. Companies selling machinery and computers in the Philippines earned $9.6 billion in the year 2018 alone.

  1. Electrical machinery, and other similar equipment

Based on the 2018 records, electrical products are still in leading products exported by the Philippines. Even the government acknowledged this fact as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) stated that such products are the key exports of the country. The Philippines exported $32.9 billion worth of electrical machinery and other similar equipment which account for almost half (48.7%) of the country’s total exports for last year.

Sources:

The Six Most Critical Issues In The Philippine Trucking Industry

excelsior on August 15, 2019

5 Problems that the Philippine Trucking Industry is Facing Today

For the past decades, the Philippines has been undergoing some constant changes specifically in the trucking industry. Many trucking companies responded by allowing themselves to adjust in order to maintain their foothold in the growing competition.

Despite the recent improvements in the Philippine economy nowadays, the trucking industry seems to be on a race of its own, exerting a sense of pressure and urgency for everyone involved especially the drivers. This event leads to the emergence of new problems and issues that continue to bring detrimental effects on the nation’s trucking industry.

Below are six most critical issues that the Philippine trucking industry is dealing with today:

  1. Excise tax on Fuel

Together with the implementation of TRAIN Law in 2018, the Philippine government also added excise tax on fuel. Diesel users such as trucks will receive a 3-tranche increase which will occur in the following order: Php 2.50 per liter in 2018, Php 4.50 per liter in 2019, and Php 6.00 per liter in 2020. Taxes on fuel has the same effects as the oil price hike as it adds further encumbrance on the part of the truckers.

  1. Age Restriction on Trucks

In the latter days of November 2018, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) suspended the implementation that restricts the age limits of trucks to 15 years. Any trucks that are more than that age threshold will be phased out. Though this move by the government is highly beneficial for the industry, future truck phase-outs in other areas of the country are still in danger of this regulation.

  1. Traffic Congestion

While some people might say that heavy traffic means that the economy is currently adjusting as it grows, we can also see it as a double-edged sword. Traffic congestion has a large number of negative effects on the environment, health, and economy of a country in a variety of ways. It could hinder the productivity of truckers as they are forced to waste a significant amount of time. What’s even worse is that it could persuade the government to impose traffic policies such as a city-wide truck ban.

  1. Oil Price Hike

Oil price hike takes place when the cost of oil starts to increase by a certain percentage. There are a lot of factors that influence the oil prices in the Philippines, such as the currency exchange rate, the supply and demand, and the price of oil in the world market. Unfortunately, most trucking companies prefer not passing the cost to their clients, sustaining a great deal of financial loss in the process.

  1. Truck Ban

Several places in the Philippines particularly Metro Manila has already experienced truck bans because of severe traffic congestion. Because of the size of the trucks, the traffic management agencies often put their blame to such vehicles as the real culprit of congestion. Even some motorists have claimed that trucks are the actual initiators of the problem as they are normally perceived as slow-moving the usual cause of car accidents. The repercussions of this policy could endanger the whole trucking industry, as the banning of trucks can affect not only the providers of these services but also the overall Philippine economy itself.

  1. Implementation of Maximum Gross Vehicle Weight (MAGVW)

According to the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines, the biggest challenge that they need to overcome this year is the implementation of maximum gross vehicle weight for the trucks. Though this regulation’s main purpose is to avoid overloading by limiting the weight of the trucks, the maximum weight allowed for truck codes 12-2 and 12-3 (41,500 and 42,000 kg respectively) could be a major problem indeed. This is because the average weight of containers that the trucks usually carry is around 30-36,000 kg, and if the average weight of the tractor head and trailer would be added (15,000 kg), the vehicle will reach a total weight of about 45,000 kg which is already a violation to the law.

Sources:

Excelsior Worldwide Logistics Corp.