US$60 Billion Exports
South Korea’s semiconductor exports reached over US$60 billion yearly for the first time.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) reported that as of Dec. 18, the export of domestic semiconductors surpassed US$60 billion for the first time in history as a single item.
Domestic semiconductor exports reached US$10 billion for the first time in 1994, followed by US$20 billion in 2000, US$30 billion in 2006, and US$50 billion in 2010, respectively.
The US$60 billion export of semiconductors is almost equal to the total exports of Portugal(€68.218 billion, or US$83.8 billion) which ranked 54th among export countries last year.
Although semiconductors gave the first position to ships in 2011 and petroleum goods in 2012, it regained the position as the single greatest export item due to the export increase of middle and low-priced smartphones and tablet PCs.
MOTIE predicted that next year's domestic semiconductor exports will increase by 4.4 percent to US$64.2 billion from US$61.5 billion this year. It is expected that exports will keep an upward trend as new demands of mobile products increase, since Samsung and SK Hynix oligopolize the DRAM market.
Kim Jeong-hwa, director of Electronic Parts and Materials Division at MOTIE said, “To continue the competitiveness of semiconductor exports, we need to find and preoccupy new demand markets such as IoT, wearables, smart cars, and power semiconductors based on memory chip performances,” adding, “The government will arrange new programs like the development of high-tech sensors, and contribute to the vitalization of the related fields.”