ICT Exports Fall 7.2% on Year in January
South Korea’s ICT exports fell 7.2 percent year on year in January this year, showing a decline for the 15th consecutive month. Display and mobile phone exports remained sluggish although its decline in semiconductor exports decreased to less than 10 percent in 12 months.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Feb. 12 that South Korea’s ICT exports and imports added up to US$13.4 billion and US$8.82 billion last month, respectively.
Semiconductor exports fell 3.3 percent from a year ago to US$7.29 billion whereas the rate of decrease amounted to 23.5 percent in January 2019. Although DRAM exports remained stagnant, NAND flash and system semiconductor exports jumped 36.9 percent and 16.2 percent, respectively.
Display exports stood at US$1.57 billion, down 21.3 percent from a year ago, as LCD exports continued to decrease. Mobile phone exports fell 28 percent to US$680 million due to an increase in overseas production and a simultaneous decline in finished and semi-finished product exports with a number of customers waiting for new phones.
Last month, South Korea’s ICT exports to China and Hong Kong fell 7.8 percent to US$6 billion with semiconductor exports to the region edging up 0.3 percent, display exports to the region dropping 31.2 percent and mobile phone exports to the region dropping 25.3 percent. South Korea’s ICT exports to the region accounted for 44.7 percent of its total ICT exports.
In the meantime, the exports to Vietnam and the United States rose 2 percent and 5.5 percent to US$2.48 billion and US$1.54 billion, respectively. Those to the European Union fell 12.3 percent to US$860 million and those to Japan totaled US$330 million with a year-on-year decline of 7.3 percent.