The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy released the “February Export Trends” on March 1, revealing a mixed performance in South Korea’s export sector. The report highlighted a 1% increase in export value from the previous year, reaching $52.6 billion. However, this growth was overshadowed by a 7.3% increase in working days, suggesting that the export sector effectively took a step back.

A significant factor in this performance was the downturn in semiconductor exports, which turned negative for the first time in 16 months. The semiconductor export value fell by 3% to $9.65 billion compared to the same month last year. This decline was attributed to falling product prices, with the fixed prices of 8GB DDR4 memory semiconductors and 128GB NAND flash memory dropping by 25% and 53.1%, respectively. A ministry official noted, “High-value memory products such as DDR5 and HBM maintained good performance.

The export value of 11 out of 15 main export items also shrank, increasing uncertainty in the market. Notable declines were observed in general machinery (-12.3%), petroleum products (-12.2%), ships (-10.8%), and secondary batteries (-9.6%). Despite these setbacks, some sectors showed resilience. Exports of wireless communication devices surged by 42.3%, computers by 28.5%, automobiles by 17.8%, and biohealth by 16.1%. Automobile exports alone increased to $6.1 billion last month.

Regionally, the U.S. and China, South Korea’s top two export markets, showed a flat trend with a 1% increase and a 1.4% decrease, respectively. The EU saw an 8.1% decrease in export performance, while exports to Japan fell by 4.7%. In contrast, emerging markets demonstrated robust growth, with ASEAN, the Middle East, and India leading the way with increases of 12.6%, 19.6%, and 18.6%, respectively.

Source: BUSINESSKOREA