South Korea’s semiconductor exports in January increased substantially, showing the global chip market is on track to rebound.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Friday that the country recorded US$16.35 billion in exports and US$11.85 billion in imports for tech-related products, resulting in a trade balance of US$4.5 billion.
Exports increased 25.1% from a year earlier while imports dropped by 3.2% over the same period.
Semiconductors accounted for US$9.21 billion __ US$5.27 billion of memory chips and US$3.64 billion in logic chips __ of total exports; an increase of 53% from December and it marks three months of consecutive double-digit growth.
Memory chip export increased on the back of increased fixed prices and rising demand for DRAM and NAND flash chips, the ministry said.
For logic, increased global spending in AI has allowed a month-to-month increase for the first time in 13 months, it said.
Total display panel export for January was US$1.5 billion __ with OLED accounting for US$810 million and LCD for US$450 million. OLED export dropped 15.4% month-to-month due to lowered demand from mobile while those for LCD increased by 51.9% over the same period on the back of improved LCD panel prices for TVs.
Handset-related exports dropped 20.1% month-to-month to US$1.1 billion; set products accounted for US$290 million and components US$820 million, a drop of 9.2% and 23.3$, respectively, from a month ago.
In terms of region, China and Hong Kong were the number one destinations for South Korea’s tech exports, accounting for US$7.52 billion __ US$5.58 billion of which were semiconductors, which increased by 77.2% month-to-month.
Vietnam accounted for US$2.54 billion, taking second place. This is because Samsung has major handset and display panel factories in the country and it imports needed components from South Korea.
The US accounted for US$1.76 billion; Europe US$900 million and Japan US$310 million.
