Despite a fluctuating export revenue for South Korea since early February, semiconductors’ exports saw a 39.1% year-on-year rise, according to statistics published by the country’s customs department and processed by Bloomberg. On the contrary, automotive exports declined by 23.3% and revenues from the sale of metallurgical products decreased by 16.8%.
South Korea’s export of different types of goods over the first 20 days of February, accounting for the difference in working days, decreased by 9.9% in monetary terms compared to a similar period last year. However, without adjusting for the Lunar New Year holidays, the export decrease reaches 7.8%, and import falls by 19.2%. As a result, the trade deficit would reach $1.2 billion.
China remains the top market for South Korean goods, with revenues reaching $5.8 billion for the initial 20 days of February. The U.S. landed in second place garnering $5.7 billion, followed by Europe at $3.3 billion. Vietnam and Japan took the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, with $2.5 billion and $1.5 billion. All other countries cumulatively imported South Korean goods worth a total sum of $11.8 billion since the start of the month. Notably, South Korea imported twice the amount of goods from China than the U.S, totalling $6.6 billion over the 20-day period.
In the structure of South Korean export revenue, semiconductor products increased their share by 5.8 percentage points to 17.2%. Sales of equipment for chip production within South Korean exports increased by 3.8%. Revenue from consumer electronics exports increased by 6.6%. South Korea’s aggregate export revenue for the first quarter is projected to rise by 9%, primarily due to surging demand for semiconductors, mainly including memory chips. The only factors that might hamper this growth are geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East and economic troubles in China, as mentioned in the official forecast.
