Amid All-Time High ICT Exports

The growth rate of semiconductor export s reached 60.2% last year, but it fell to 53.8% in January this year and to 40.7% in February.
The growth rate of semiconductor exports reached 60.2% last year, but it fell to 53.8% in January this year and to 40.7% in February.

South Korea’s exports from the ICT sector hit an all-time high in the first half of this year, propelled by semiconductor exports. Still, the year-on-year increase in semiconductor exports, which used to be 60% to 70% last year, fell to about 30% in the first half of 2018.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy and the Ministry of Science & ICT announced on July 18 that the exports from the ICT sector totaled US$107.47 billion with a year-on-year growth of 18.3% during the period. The volume added up to US$19.13 billion last month, up 20.4% from a year ago, to reach the second-highest level behind US$19.25 billion of September last year. The export growth rate exceeded 10% for the 19th consecutive month.
 

Last month, South Korea’s semiconductor exports totaled US$11.25 billion with a year-on-year growth of 37.5%. In the first half of this year, the volume increased 42.5% from a year earlier to US$62.06 billion, equivalent to 57.8% of the total exports from the ICT sector.

Nonetheless, its semiconductor export growth is slowing down. The rate of increase reached 60.2% last year, but it fell to 53.8% in January this year and to 40.7% in February. It was 44.3%, 36.6% and 43.5% in March, April and May, respectively.

Memory multi-chip package (MCP) products showed a decline in exports of 10.5%, showing a decrease in monthly exports for the first time since July 2015. This can be attributed to a slowdown in the growth of the global smartphone market. A solid growth is continuing when it comes to DRAMs and NAND flash memories although signs of a decline in price are being witnessed.
 

A decrease in ICT exports may have a huge impact on South Korea’s total exports as the former accounted for no less than 36.1% of the latter, US$297.52 billion, in the first half of this year. During the same period, the ICT sector posted a trade surplus of US$55.22 billion while South Korea’s total trade surplus was US$32.52 billion.

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