Exports fall nearly 15% in first 10 days of Feb.

A port in the southeastern city of Busan. [YONHAP]

Korea's exports fell nearly 15 percent on-year in the first 10 days of February due mainly to fewer working days, but sales of semiconductors soared more than 40 percent, data showed Tuesday.

Outbound shipments reached $15.01 billion in the Feb. 1-10 period, compared with $17.57 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.

Per-day exports, however, increased 11.7 percent on-year to $2.31 billion, with the number of working days shrinking by two to 6.5 in the cited period as South Korea's Lunar New Year holiday ran from Feb. 9-12 this year.

Outbound shipments of semiconductors surged 42.2 percent to $2.78 billion during the Feb. 1-10 period, jumping more than 40 percent in the first 10 days of a month for the first time since November 2021.

Exports to the United States decreased 12.4 percent to $2.84 billion during the cited period, while shipments to China went down 20.3 percent to $2.82 billion.

Yonhap