Korea's exports of ICT products grow for 3rd month

South Korea‘s exports of information and communication technology products continued to increase for the third consecutive month in August, according to a government report released Tuesday.

The Ministry of Science and ICT report shows the nation‘s exports of ICT products last month reaching $15.24 billion, up by 0.3 percent on-year. The upward trend has been largely contributed to robust exports of memory chips and computers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Outbound shipments of semiconductor products, the nation‘s key export, marked $8.29 billion, up by 2.6 percent on-year.

Exports of computer products last month went up by 98.2 percent to reach $1.34 billion, backed by swift exports of solid state drives. Outbound shipments of SSD products in August were worth $1.02 billion, a 165.9 percent increase on-year.

South Korea‘s exports of mobile devices, however, fell 33 percent on-year to $700 million. Exports of displays too plunged 17 percent on-year at $1.8 billion last month.

By nations, exports to China, South Korea’s largest ICT trading partner, fell 3.3 percent at $7.1 billion. Outbound shipments to Vietnam and Japan also fell by 2 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively.

Exports to the EU nations fell 1.8 percent at $860 million, as overseas sales of semiconductor products decreased by 9.5 percent.

Outbound shipments to the US, on the other hand, soared 18 percent to $1.75 billion, marking the eighth consecutive month of growth.

Meanwhile, imports of ICT products increased by 4.3 percent to $9.19 billion last month, resulting in a trade surplus of $6.05 billion.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)