February ICT Exports Second Highest Ever... Semiconductor Exports to China Down 30%

Export Value Reaches $16.71 Billion
Up 1.2% Year-on-Year

Last month, exports in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector recorded the second highest February figure ever.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 16th that February ICT exports amounted to $16.71 billion (approximately 24.29 trillion KRW), a 1.2% increase compared to February last year, marking the second highest February export value.

By export item, semiconductor and display exports decreased by 3.0% and 5.1%, respectively. However, exports of mobile phones (33.3%), computers and peripherals (26.9%), and telecommunications equipment (74.1%) saw significant growth.

High-bandwidth memory (HBM), DDR5, and other AI memory semiconductors showed solid performance, but semiconductor exports declined due to the drop in prices of general-purpose memory such as NAND and production cuts caused by the transition of NAND flash processes.

The increase in mobile phone exports was attributed to expanded parts exports to overseas production bases in China, Vietnam, and India, while the rise in computer and peripheral exports was due to increased demand for storage devices driven by expanded server and data center investments in the United States and the European Union (EU).

February ICT Exports Second Highest Ever... Semiconductor Exports to China Down 30%

Yonhap News

By region, exports increased to the United States (11.5%), Vietnam (15.6%), Taiwan (124.3%), and India (54.9%). Exports decreased to China (-19.6%), the European Union (-7.6%), and Japan (-5.7%).

In particular, semiconductor exports to China fell by 31.8% year-on-year due to U.S. export restrictions on HBM to China.

ICT imports last month totaled $10.9 billion (approximately 15.84 trillion KRW), a 5.6% increase compared to February last year. Imports of mid-to-large computers (3.3%) and multimedia cards (41.6%) rose sharply due to domestic companies’ increased investments in AI servers and GPUs.

Last month, the trade balance recorded a surplus of $5.81 billion (approximately 8.44 trillion KRW).