Korea’s ICT Exports Turned Around Last Month

The Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning announced on Sept. 17 that the exports from the ICT industry of Korea increased by 0.7 percent from a year ago to US$14.44 billion last month, while imports went up 11.4 percent during the same period to US$7.55 billion. Exports had declined 3.4 percent year-on-year in July due to the global economic recession.

By export item, mobile phone exports reached US$2.42 billion to show a 16.7 percent year-on-year growth. Meanwhile, smartphone exports edged down by 0.2 percent. Semiconductor exports increased 4 percent to US$5.45 billion, led by system semiconductor products such as application processors for use in smartphones. System semiconductor exports jumped 19.1 percent to US$1.91 billion. However, memory semiconductor exports declined 1.4 percent to US$3.03 billion, due to a decrease in DRAM prices.

Display panel exports fell by 7.5 percent to US$2.72 billion, and computer and peripherals exports showed a 6.3 percent decrease to end up at US$510 million. Digital TV exports decreased 5.5 percent to US$530 million, too.

By region, exports to China increased 4.8 percent to US$7.84 billion, while those to the ASEAN region and the United States jumped 19.5 percent and 15.7 percent, respectively. In contrast, exports to the E.U. fell 26.4 percent to US$760 million. “Last year, Korea’s ICT exports ranked fourth behind those of China, the United States, and Germany, but Korea overtook Germany this year,” the ministry said, adding, “At the same time, Korea recorded the second-highest rate of increase in exports among the top five, second only to China.”