Korea’s IT exports shrink in Oct.

South Korea’s exports of information technology products reached the third largest monthly volume in the country’s history last month, though they dropped slightly from a year earlier when the country posted record shipments, the government said Sunday.

The country shipped $13.79 billion worth of IT products in October, down 2.2 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

The ministry attributed the drop largely to the fewer number of working days from a year earlier when the country exported a record $14.1 billion worth of goods.

“October’s IT exports dropped slightly from the same month last year due to a drop in the number of working days, but the daily average amount of exports was at $610 million, higher than that ($600 million) of October last year,” it said in a press release.

Exports in the first 10 months of the year grew 3.1 percent on-year to $131.2 billion, a new high for the cited period, it added.

In October, overseas shipments of system semiconductors surged 34.8 percent on-year to $2.03 billion, offsetting a 26 percent drop in shipments of memory chips while also leading the country’s IT exports to the third largest monthly volume.

Exports of display panels grew 1.1 percent on-year to $2.92 billion, marking the first positive growth from a year earlier this year, according to the ministry.

By country, exports to China, including Hong Kong, soared 9.8 percent on-year to $6.6 billion with shipments to the 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, also surging 11 percent to $1.4 billion.

Exports to the United States and Europe, formerly the country’s largest export markets, dwindled 18.5 percent and 32 percent, respectively, to $1.57 billion and $1.25 billion. 

(Yonhap News)