* Industry group sees 10-15 percent exports growth in 2010
* Demand strong in first half, factories re-hiring people
* Demand coming from laptops, netbooks, LED TV makers (Adds comments, details)
By Rosemarie Francisco
MANILA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Philippines' shipments of electronics and semiconductors, its dominant exports, are expected to climb 10 to 15 percent this year driven by strong demand notably from China, the head of an industry group said on Tuesday.
"We certainly believe that 2010 will be a significantly better year, we do anticipate a double digit growth for our industry in the Philippines in 2010," Arthur Young, chairman of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc, told Reuters.
"We believe anywhere from 10 to 15 percent growth compared to 2009 numbers."
"China is obviously (showing) very strong demand, the rest of the world is starting to pick up in certain areas."
The sector, making up more than half of the country's total exports, likely fell at least 20 percent in 2009 due to the global crisis, Young said. Before demand dried up in the second half of 2008 due to the downturn, the industry's exports grew between 5-10 percent in 2006 and 2007.
"There's a good chance it (growth this year) could be higher than 15 percent but it's a little bit too premature to say how higher it could grow," he said. "Certainly, we are seeing fairly good strength in Q1 and Q2. We are seeing pretty strong demand."
The head of the industry group, which counts the local units of Texas Instruments, Toshiba Corp and Fujitsu Ltd among its members, said demand was coming from makers of smart phones, flat panel and LED television sets, laptops and netbooks.
"Semiconductors are playing a very big part of that growth in the electronics industry because of the new technology and energy efficient products," said Young, also president of semiconductors-maker PSI Technologies Inc.
Young said industry players were now re-hiring factory workers with the rise in demand for their products. The industry had to resort to 3-day work weeks, impose forced leaves, or retrench people as orders fell sharply at the height of the crisis.
Electronics exports recorded annual falls of nearly 50 percent between December 2008 to January 2009, before shipments gradually slowed.
November was a turning point for the industry, when electronics exports climbed 6.9 percent, the first annual increase since July 2008, bringing the annual growth in total exports to 5.1 percent in November from a year earlier.
Semiconductors, the Philippines' largest electronics exports, fell an annual 5.6 percent in November, slower than its 15.5 percent drop in October. Electronics products which registered gains in November were electronic data processing and office equipment, communication and radar, medical/industrial instruments, and automotive parts. (Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Kazunori Takada)