SEOUL– South Korea’s exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products hit a fresh high last year on strong overseas demand for chips and mobile phones, data showed Thursday.
Outbound shipments of ICT products rose 2.5 percent on-year to US$233.3 billion for 2022, outnumbering the previous high of $227.6 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The annual figure gained for a third straight year since 2020.
ICT imports reached $152.5 billion last year, up 12.9 percent from a year ago, resulting in a trade surplus of $80.9 billion in the sector.
Exports of semiconductors climbed 1.7 percent on-year to an all-time high of $130.9 billion and outbound shipments of mobile phones grew 4.9 percent to $14.7 billion last year.
But overseas sales of displays contracted 1 percent on-year to $24.4 billion and those of computers and peripheral devices inched down 0.5 percent to $17.3 billion.
By country, combined shipments to China, South Korea’s largest trading partner, and Hong Kong fell 4.9 percent to $102.3 billion last year due to a drop in demand for chips.
Overseas sales to Vietnam rose 4.3 percent to $36.6 billion on robust demand for semiconductors, while exports to the United States went up 4.4 percent to $29.2 billion and those to the European Union and Japan expanded 7.5 percent to $13.7 billion and 2.7 percent to $4.4 billion, respectively.
Source: Yonhap News Agency