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(Photo= Yonhap news) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Sangjin] In May, South Korea's exports increased by 11.7% compared to May of the previous year, marking eight consecutive months of export growth. Semiconductor and ship exports, the mainstay export items, led the export boom with increases of 54.5% and 108.4%, respectively. Export to China recorded its largest volume in 19 months, surpassing the United States and becoming South Korea's largest export destination again.
According to the export-import trends announced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 2nd, South Korea's exports in May this year reached $58.15 billion, an 11.7% increase from the same period last year. This is the highest performance in 22 months since July 2022 ($60.24 billion). The monthly export growth rate has continued in the positive direction for eight consecutive months since October last year.
By item, among the 15 major export items, excluding secondary batteries, general machinery, steel, and automobile parts, 11 items showed export growth.
Semiconductor exports recorded $11.38 billion, a 54.5% increase from the same period last year, marking seven consecutive months of growth. In particular, memory semiconductor exports including High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) reached $6.86 billion, a 101.0% increase. System semiconductors (non-memory) exports increased by 14.3% to $4.52 billion.
Display exports totaled $1.63 billion, a 15.8% increase from May last year, showing the highest performance this year and marking ten consecutive months of growth. Computer Solid State Drive (SSD) exports reached $1.04 billion, the highest performance in 17 months since January 2022, and continued to increase for five consecutive months.
Automobile exports also reached $6.49 billion, the highest May figure ever, with a 4.8% increase from May last year. Except for February, which had the Lunar New Year holidays, automobile exports maintained over $6 billion every month this year. Ship exports, driven by an increase in orders for high value-added ships such as LNG carriers, reached $2.06 billion, a 108.4% increase from the same period last year, marking ten consecutive months of growth.
Looking at May exports by region, exports to China reached $11.38 billion, a 7.6% increase from May last year, driven by semiconductor, display, and wireless communication products. This is the largest volume in 19 months since October 2022 ($12.2 billion). Previously, due to sluggish exports to China, in December last year, South Korea's largest export market changed from China to the United States for the first time in 20 years and 6 months since June 2003. However, China has become South Korea's largest export destination again since May this year, after five months where exports to the United States exceeded exports to China.
알파경제 Kim SangJin (letyou@alphabiz.co.kr)
