SEOUL – South Korea's exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products experienced a 4.5 percent decline in October compared to the previous year, marking a continuous decrease for 16 months. This data was released by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
According to Yonhap News Agency, The Ministry's data revealed that the outbound shipments of ICT products amounted to US$17.1 billion last month, down from $17.9 billion a year earlier. Although this represents the slowest year-on-year drop since September of the previous year, the sector has been experiencing a downward trend since July last year.
However, the pace of decline has been slowing, with the most significant decrease recorded in April at 35.9 percent. ICT imports in October also fell by 8.3 percent on-year to $12.6 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $4.4 billion in the sector.
Significantly, semiconductor exports, which constitute about half of all ICT shipments, stood at $9 billion, marking the smallest year-on-year decline of 4.7 percent this year. This improvement is attributed to the increase in memory chip sales, the first in 16 months, influenced by the upturn in the average quarterly price of 8-gigabit DRAM.
Additionally, exports of displays rose by 13.1 percent to $2.3 billion, driven by higher demand for mobile OLED screens, continuing a positive trend for the third consecutive month. However, exports of mobile phones and computers declined by 3.3 percent and 26.2 percent, respectively.
By country, exports to China and Hong Kong decreased by 3.5 percent to $7.6 billion, while exports to the United States and the European Union fell by 14.7 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively. Exports to Vietnam saw a slight increase of 0.3 percent to $3.2 billion, primarily due to increased demand for mobile displays.