Last Month's ICT Exports Reach $15.3 Billion... 9 Consecutive Months of Increase

Ministry of Industry, February ICT Export and Import Trends

Semiconductors, Displays, and Mobile Phones Increase, Computers and Peripherals Decrease
Trade Balance Surplus of 6.0 Billion USD

Year-on-year growth rate of ICT exports.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] ICT (Information and Communication Technology) exports have increased for nine consecutive months through February this year. In particular, semiconductors, Korea's main export item, continued an upward trend for eight months as exports in both memory and system sectors rose.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 15th, ICT exports last month amounted to 15.28 billion USD, an increase of 11.5% compared to the same period last year. This is the second highest amount ever recorded for February export figures.

Considering the decrease in working days from 22.5 days in the same period last year to 19.5 days this year, the average daily export value also increased by 28.7%, from 610 million USD last year to 780 million USD in February this year.

By item, semiconductors increased by 12.5% to 8.44 billion USD. Due to continuous demand, both memory (5.22 billion USD, 12.6%) and system (2.7 billion USD, 13.2%) semiconductors rose together, marking eight consecutive months of growth.

Displays also increased by 22.3% to 1.62 billion USD, and mobile phones rose by 15.0% to 1.03 billion USD.

On the other hand, while computers (150 million USD, 16.6%) increased, peripherals such as solid-state drives (SSD) (920 million USD, -8.5%) saw a decline in exports, resulting in computer and peripheral exports totaling 1.07 billion USD, a 5.6% decrease compared to the same period last year.

By major countries, exports to China (including Hong Kong) increased by 13.6%, the United States by 6.7%, and the European Union (EU) by 14.0%. However, exports to Vietnam (-0.8%) and Japan (-4.3%) decreased.

ICT imports in February this year amounted to 9.19 billion USD, an increase of 19.3% compared to the same month last year. The trade balance was preliminarily estimated at a surplus of 6.09 billion USD.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.