October ICT exports at $16.1B due largely to semiconductors

Korea’s monthly exports of information communication technology (ICT) products for October were the highest of the year at $16.1 billion thanks to semiconductors.

The number was a 1 percent decrease over last October largely due to reduced sales of Korean-brand smartphones. The country had an ICT trade surplus of $8.2 billion last month.

By product, semiconductors posted record high monthly sales of $5.9 billion, up 11.5 percent compared to September. Memory chips sales rose 34 percent over September, while system operating chip sales dropped 4.6 percent. China, the United States and the European Union were major buyers of Korean semiconductors.

October smartphone sales were worth $2.4 billion, about 18 percent lower than October last year. Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 4 and LG Electronics’ G3 sales barely exceeded $1 billion, as sales fell short in China where local phones like Xiaomi took a larger share of the market.