Breaking $15B Mark
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of South Korea announced on May 17 that the exports from the country’s ICT sector totaled US$15.55 billion in April this year, up 24.2% from a year ago, with the exports from the sector for the month of April breaking the US$15 billion mark for the first time ever. It added that the rate of increase was an 80-month high.
Semiconductor exports jumped by no less than 59.1% and reached US$7.24 billion. This can be attributed to the release of new smartphone models and an increase in unit price. The amount exceeded US$7 billion for the second consecutive month.
Display exports increased 6.9% to US$2.27 billion, rising for the sixth consecutive month. Exports of computers and peripherals totaled US$680 million with a year-on-year growth of 24%, led by the exports of auxiliary storage devices such as solid state drives (SSDs).
By export destination, the total exports were divided into US$7.51 billion to China, US$2.18 billion to Vietnam, US$1.65 billion to the United States and US$850 million to the EU region.
In the meantime, the ICT sector’ monthly imports increased 8.5% to US$7.88 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$7.68 billion.