Last Year, Top 10 Exporters Accounted for 39%... Semiconductor Boom Lifts Share to 7-Year High

Cars bound for export were waiting to be loaded at the export yard of Pyeongtaek Port in Gyeonggi Province on the 8th, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would impose 25% reciprocal tariffs on all imports from Korea starting August 1. July 8, 2025. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

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Last year, companies' export value increased by about 3.8% compared with a year earlier. Thanks to robust semiconductor exports, exports by large enterprises rose sharply, pushing the share of the top 10 exporting companies to its highest level in seven years.

According to the "Trade Statistics by Enterprise Characteristics for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year of 2025," released by the National Data Office on the 10th, total exports for last year came to 709.4 billion dollars, up 3.8% from a year earlier. Although the growth rate slowed from 8.1% in the previous year, the export value was the highest since statistics began in 2010.

By company size, export value increased across the board: large enterprises (3.4%), mid-sized enterprises (2.0%), and small enterprises (7.2%). The trade concentration ratio of the top 10 exporting companies was 39.0%, up 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier. The trade concentration ratio of the top 100 companies (67.1%) rose by 0.4 percentage points.

Jung Kyuseung, head of the Corporate Statistics Team at the Data Office, explained, "The concentration ratio is at an all-time high, and the increase in semiconductor exports had the greatest impact."

By industry, exports decreased in wholesale and retail trade (-6.3%), but increased in mining and manufacturing (5.1%) and in other industries (4.4%).

Imports totaled 631.8 billion dollars, unchanged from the previous year. By company size, imports decreased for large enterprises (-3.5%), but increased for mid-sized enterprises (7.7%) and small enterprises (4.6%).

The trade concentration ratio of the top 10 importing companies was 29.3%, down 1.3 percentage points. The trade concentration ratio of the top 100 companies (55.6%) fell by 1.1 percentage points.

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By industry, imports decreased in mining and manufacturing (-2.4%) and in other industries (-1.0%), but increased in wholesale and retail trade (6.5%). By employment size, imports decreased among firms with 250 or more employees (-2.9%), but increased among those with 10 to 249 employees (6.4%) and 1 to 9 employees (7.5%).

Imports of raw materials decreased (-5.6%), but imports of capital goods (6.6%) and consumer goods (1.6%) increased.

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