South Korea witnessed a significant surge in exports, climbing 44.4 percent year-on-year in the first ten days of February, according to recent data. This impressive growth was largely fueled by robust global demand for semiconductors.
The Korea Customs Service reported that outbound shipments reached $21.39 billion between February 1st and 10th, a substantial increase compared to the $14.81 billion recorded during the same period last year.
Imports also experienced growth, rising 21.1 percent year-on-year to $20.74 billion during the cited period, resulting in a trade surplus of $64 million.
The daily average export volume saw a considerable increase of 34.8 percent compared to the previous year. The number of working days during this period also slightly increased by 0.5 days to reach a total of 7.5 days.
A breakdown by item reveals that semiconductor exports experienced a remarkable surge of 137.6 percent year-on-year, reaching $6.73 billion. This boom is attributed to the ongoing global artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.
Notably, chip exports accounted for a substantial 31.5 percent of South Korea’s total exports during this period, marking a significant increase of 12.3 percentage points compared to the same period in the previous year.
Exports of petroleum products also demonstrated strong performance, jumping 40.1 percent to reach $1.52 billion.
However, not all sectors experienced growth. Automobile exports saw a slight decrease of 2.6 percent year-on-year, totaling $1.35 billion. Shipments of vessels also dipped, declining by 29 percent to $663 million.
Analyzing export destinations, shipments to China, South Korea’s primary trading partner, soared by 54.1 percent year-on-year to $4.55 billion.
Exports to the United States also showed significant growth, increasing by 38.5 percent to $3.6 billion, despite existing tariff schemes implemented by the U.S. administration.
