Semiconductor Boom Drives Top 10 Exporters' Trade Concentration Over 50% for First Time in Q1

Provisional Q1 2026 Corporate Trade Statistics by Company Characteristics

IT Component Exports Reach $8.3 Billion... Up 124.6%

In the first quarter of this year, thanks to a boom in semiconductor exports, the share of Korea's top 10 exporters in total export value surpassed 50% for the first time ever. Analysts attribute this to robust export growth of capital goods driven by major corporations such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which has strongly propelled overall trade expansion.

According to the 'Q1 2026 Corporate Trade Statistics by Company Characteristics (Provisional)' released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on May 21, the trade concentration of the top 10 exporters reached 50.1% in the first quarter of this year. This marks a dramatic increase of 13.5 percentage points (P) compared to the same period last year (36.6%).

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The trade concentration of the top 100 exporters also rose by 7.2 percentage points year-on-year, reaching 73.4%, indicating an even greater concentration of exports among large corporations. During this period, total export value increased by 37.8% year-on-year to reach 219.9 billion dollars.

The surge in exports was largely driven by core IT components such as semiconductors. By type of goods, capital goods exports—including semiconductors and information technology devices—soared by 60.9% year-on-year to 144.7 billion dollars.

In particular, exports of IT components within capital goods, including semiconductors, totaled 83 billion dollars, an explosive 124.6% increase from the same period last year, leading overall trade growth. By industry, the electric and electronic sector within broad manufacturing industries such as electronics, telecommunications, and electrical equipment showed the most significant growth, with export value rising 80.6% year-on-year to 119.5 billion dollars.

Raw materials exports rose by 13.7% due to increases in mineral and steel/metal products. In contrast, consumer goods exports fell by 3.1% as a result of decreased demand for durable goods such as automobiles.

By company size, export growth was most pronounced among large corporations. In the first quarter of this year, exports by large companies surged 52.9% year-on-year to 158.5 billion dollars. While exports by medium-sized companies (up 7.4%) and small companies (up 10.7%) also increased, the scale of growth was much less than that of large corporations.

Meanwhile, total imports in the first quarter of this year rose 10.9% year-on-year to 169.4 billion dollars. Unlike exports, the trade concentration of the top 10 importers was 30.7%, down 0.7 percentage points from the same period last year.

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