SEOUL: South Korea’s exports in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector fell for the first time in three months, but imports hit a record monthly high due to demand for Apple’s iPhone, a government report showed Thursday.
Exports of the ICT industry, including handsets, chips and display panels, reduced 1.6 percent from a year earlier to 16.04 billion dollars in October, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
It marked the first decline in three months after recording a 0.6 percent rise in August and a 1.6 percent increase in September.
The industry’s imports surged 10.4 percent to reach a new record high of 8.77 billion dollars in October thanks to demand for Apple’s smartphones. Handset imports soared 60.6 percent to 1.44 billion dollars last month. Trade surplus in the ICT sector amounted to 7.27 billion dollars last month.
Despite the sluggishness in overall export conditions and the faltering global ICT industry, the country’s exports in the ICT sector showed a relatively upbeat picture. The October exports logged the third-largest monthly figure, following 16.6 billion dollars tallied in October 2013 and 16.3 billion dollars in October 2014.
South Korea’s exports in all industries tumbled 15.8 percent in October from a year earlier. The global ICT market was forecast to reduce 4.9 percent in 2015, according to estimates by market researcher Gartner.
For the first 10 months of this year, the ICT exports reached 145.54 billion dollars, little changed from the same period of last year. During the same period, overall exports declined 7.6 percent.
In October, handset exports surged 37.6 percent thanks to strong demand for newly launched smartphones such as Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note5 and LG Electronics’V10. The double-digit increase has continued for three months.
Semiconductor shipments slid 7.5 percent last month due to falling prices of DRAM and NAND Flash chips, and display panel exports slumped 11.7 percent on the back of low product price and weak global demand.
By region, ICT exports to China and the United States, South Korea’s top two trading partners, gained 5.4 percent and 7 percent respectively, but those to the European Union and Japan plunged 13.3 percent and 30.9 percent each.
