SEOUL: South Korea’s exports of information communication technology (ICT) products dropped by 3.9 percent year-on-year in July. It marked the first time in three months that the country’s ICT exports logged a year-on-year decline after April.
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) announced that outbound shipments of ICT products amounted to US$13.71 billion (16.13 trillion won) in July, down 3.9 percent from the same month last year, while imports increased by 5.8 percent year-on-year to US$7.57 billion (8.91 trillion won).
Accordingly, the country posted a trade surplus in the ICT sector of US$6.14 billion (7.22 trillion won). The MSIP said that Korea’s ICT exports are doing better than most other advanced countries, but external conditions are continuing to deteriorate, as can be seen in the slowdown in the growth of global ICT trade and in lower growth rate forecasts.
By product, only semiconductors posted a growth in exports. South Korea’s exports of semiconductors rose 6.2 percent year-on-year to US$5.14 billion (6.05 trillion won) in July.
This is due to the fact that shipments of system semiconductors grew by nearly 20 percent from the increase in exports of post-processing semiconductors for mobile devices, though the unit price of DRAM dropped and shipments of memory semiconductors slightly decreased due to exports switching from NAND flash to SSDs.
Shipments of display panels, on the other hand, plunged 15.1 percent to US$2.1 billion (2.47 trillion won), with exports of mobile phones tumbling 16 percent to US$1.94 billion (2.28 trillion won). Also, shipments of computers and peripherals declined 13.2 percent to US$460 million (541.19 billion won), while exports of digital TVs dropped 25.4 percent to US$520 million (611.78 billion won).
The large drop in outbound shipments of mobile phones was largely attributed to the plunge in shipments of smartphones amid growing competition from global manufacturers, including Apple Inc. and Xiaomi, and expanding overseas production. However, exports of smartphone parts increased 6 percent to US$1.27 billion (1.49 trillion won).
The country’s imports of ICT products rose 5.8 percent in July after the figure decreased 2.3 percent in June. By product, imports of smartphones spiked 37.5 percent year-on-year to US$620 million (729.43 billion won) last month.
This is largely due to the increase in foreign-made smartphone imports, including the iPhone, and reimportation of parts. Imports of semiconductors rose 5.9 percent to US$3.28 billion (3.86 trillion won), while the figure of display panels grew 20.3 percent to US$590 million (694.14 billion won). However, imports of computers and peripherals dropped 1.5 percent to US$740 million (870.61 billion won).
The trade surplus of US$6.14 billion (7.22 trillion won) in the ICT sector in July contributed to the greater part of the overall trade surplus of US$7.76 billion (9.13 trillion won).
