S. Korea's ICT exports reach new high in 2024 on record chip exports

Korea's exports of information and communication technology products soared almost 26 percent on-year in 2024.

Our correspondent Lee Soo-jin covers this latest data.

South Korea's tech shipments reached a new annual high in 2024, led by record chip exports.

Data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed that ICT exports last year came to 2-hundred-35 billion dollars, up nearly 26 percent compared to the same month the year before.

This marks a fresh high on a yearly basis, surpassing the previous record set in 2022, as ICT exports have continued to see year-on-year rises for 14 straight months.

The ministry attributed this mainly to outbound semiconductor shipments reaching an all-time annual high of 1-hundred-42 billion dollars in 2024, boosted by robust global demand for AI-related products.

That's up a whopping 42-point-5 percent compared to the year before.

Chip exports also surpassed the 10-billion dollar mark for the eighth consecutive month, as shipments of memory chips, including high-bandwidth memory semiconductors, showed significant growth.

And a shift to a double-digit growth in mobile phones as well as large demand for solid-state drives also contributed to 2024's record-high tech exports.

By country, exports to Vietnam and the United States, which showed a sluggish performance in 2023 due to a slump in the global economy, both recorded their highest-ever export value last year.

China, South Korea's top export destination, accounted for over 40 percent of Korea's total ICT exports last year, on the back of strong chip demand.

As for exports in December alone, shipments reached more than 22 billion dollars, up more than 24 percent year-on-year.

But it wasn't just December that saw solid monthly exports, as shipments surpassed the 20 billion dollar mark for five straight months starting last August.

And exports in the last month of the year were also bolstered by chip shipments, with both memory and system semiconductors showing significant increases compared to the previous year.

Lee Soo-jin, Arirang News.