ICT Exports Increase 1.1% in March on Year
Korea’s semiconductor exports swung to contraction in March, only one month after severing the 15-month streak of decrease.
Korea’s ICT exports reached US$16 billion in March, an increase of 1.1 percent on year, according to data released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Although the uptick was maintained, the pace of increase slowed down significantly compared with February when ICT exports increased 8.5 percent from the same month of 2019. Imports rose 2.7 percent to US$9.44 billion. As a result, Korea’s ICT trade balance hit a surplus of US$6,570 million in March.
The slowdown in ICT export growth stemmed from a decrease in semiconductor exports, the flagship export item of Korea Inc. In March, semiconductor exports arrived at US$8.87 billion, down 2.7 percent from the previous year. They rose 9.3 percent in February as DRAM and NAND flash unit prices rose, but they fell again in a month due to a decrease in demand due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. In particular, memory semiconductor exports hit only US$5.66 billion, down 13.5 percent from the previous year.
Display exports, one of the three major ICT export items, also slid. In March, they reached US$1.64 billion, down 4.4 percent from the same month of 2019. They have been falling for 19 consecutive months since September 2018 (-10.7 percent).
Exports to China, which account for about half of Korea’s ICT exports, turned to a decline again. They rose 4.9 percent in February, showing a sign of recovery. In March when the COVID-19 epidemic spread fast, they sat at -5.6 percent. Analysts say that the decline is blamed on semiconductor exports which contracted 8.8 percent.
On the other hand, computer and peripheral exports in March touched US$1.23 billion, up 77.6 percent from a year ago. An official from the Ministry of Industry explained, “Exports of solid state drives (SSDs), an auxiliary storage device, surged by 176.9 percent.” In addition, mobile phone exports swelled 11.3 percent thanks to Samsung Electronics' foldable smartphone Galaxy Z Flip and strategic smartphone Galaxy 20.
By country, exports to the U.S. (16.8 percent), Japan (18.9 percent), and Vietnam (7.9 percent) grew in March, but exports to China (-5.6 percent) and the EU (-1.2 percent) sank.