Invest KOREA

South Korea's exports of information technology (IT) products gained 6.2 percent on-year in March on steady global demand for semiconductors, mobile phones and TVs, the government said Tuesday.

   The country shipped US$13.50 billion worth of IT products abroad last month, despite economic uncertainties triggered by unrest in some North African countries and the devastating earthquake that hit Japan, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a monthly report.

   March's increase marked the 18th month in a row that exports of locally made IT products grew compared to the year before.

   Outbound shipments of semiconductors jumped 10.9 percent on-year to $4.48 billion, with overseas demand for mobile phones rising 6.0 percent to $2.17 billion. The gain in mobile phone shipments was mainly due to the 248.7 percent surge in smartphone exports posted by such companies as Samsung.

   Exports of TVs rose 11.1 percent on-year to $720 million as South Korean companies continued to dominate the global flat-screen, liquid-crystal display and plasma display panel markets.

   The report, however, showed exports of display panels declining 4.8 percent on-year to $2.70 billion, with shipments of computers falling 6.7 percent to $650 million.

   Exports to China, including Hong Kong, gained 9.4 percent to $6.30 billion, with gains for Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations increasing 12.4 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively.

   Outbound shipments to countries in the Middle East and Oceania all rose compared to the year before, although exports to the United States, the world's largest consumer market, dipped 3.3 percent to $1.38 billion. Numbers for the European Union fell 9.5 percent on-year to $1.41 billion.

   Imports of IT products, meanwhile, rose 11.9 percent on-year to $7.22 billion in March, with the country's trade surplus hitting $6.28 billion in the cited month, according to the report.

   The report also showed that South Korea's IT exports for the first quarter rose 9.0 percent to a record $37.51 billion. This surpasses the previous quarterly high of $33.40 billion tallied for the first quarter of 2010.

   Imports in the January-March period increased 17.8 percent on-year to $20.05 billion for a trade surplus of $17.45 billion.

Source: Yonhap News (April 5, 2011)