South Korea’s exports in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) continued to decline for an eighth consecutive month in February, according to data released by the government on Tuesday.

The country’s ICT exports fell by 32 percent from a year ago to $12.82 billion. The decline was seen in across categories, including a 41.5 percent drop in semiconductors, 42.2 percent decline for display exports and 58.6 percent lower for computer and peripheral equipment. Even mobile phone exports, which had increased by 24.4 percent in January, posted a decline of 5.5 percent last month, while communication equipment exports increased 0.8 percent.

The decline in semiconductor exports was primarily due to the sluggish market conditions and a decrease in both shipment volume and unit price. Memory chip exports fell by 53.9 percent to $2.92 billion compared to a year earlier, following a decline of 57.3 percent in January.

System semiconductor exports, which had turned to a downward trend after 33 months of growth in January, fell by 25.5 percent to $2.69 billion in February compared to the same period last year. The decline in display exports was seen in both OLED and LCD displays, which fell by 39.3 percent and 43.0 percent, respectively.

Although mobile phone exports saw a smaller decline compared with semiconductor and other categories, there was a significant decline in finished product exports. However, the release of new products such as the Galaxy S23 in early February led to a surge in mobile phone exports to the U.S., which increased by 73.5 percent.

In contrast, ICT imports fell by 3.6 percent to $11 billion in February compared to a year ago. Although the trade surplus in the ICT sector reached $1.82 billion last month, it contracted significantly compared to the $7.45 billion surplus recorded a year ago.

Due to the decline in ICT exports, the proportion of ICT exports in the country’s overall industry fell to 25.6 percent.

By Pulse

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