Containers stacked at Pyeongtaek Port in Gyeonggi Province. [Yonhap]
Containers stacked at Pyeongtaek Port in Gyeonggi Province. [Yonhap]

South Korea's exports approached $55 billion in the first 20 days of July, setting an all-time high for the period. A semiconductor boom drove the overall gain, with chip exports jumping more than 180% from a year earlier. Passenger car exports, however, fell more than 10%, even though automobiles rank among the country's top three export items.

The Korea Customs Service released preliminary customs clearance data Tuesday showing exports totaled $54.9 billion from July 1 to 20, up 52.3% from the same period last year. The figure is the largest ever recorded for that 20-day window, far exceeding the previous record of $36.9 billion set in 2024.

The period logged 14.5 working days, one fewer than the 15.5 days recorded a year earlier. Adjusted for that difference, the daily average export value rose 62.9% to $3.79 billion. South Korea's monthly exports first crossed the $80 billion mark in March, stayed above that threshold for three consecutive months, then surpassed $100 billion last month — making the country only the fourth in the world, after Germany, China and the United States, to reach that level.

Semiconductors led the export surge. Chip exports totaled $22.1 billion, up 180.6% from a year ago, setting a new record for the July 1–20 period. Rising fixed prices for memory chips, along with growing demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers and solid-state drives, drove the increase. Semiconductors had already posted consecutive monthly records for 15 straight months through last month, and the upward trend continued into July.

Semiconductors accounted for 40.3% of total exports, up 18.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Computer peripheral exports also jumped 231.9%, buoyed by demand for AI server SSDs. Ships (70.8%), wireless communications devices (65.9%) and petroleum products (33.4%) also posted gains.

Passenger car exports fell 10.6%, while auto parts declined 9.6%.

Exports rose across all major markets, including China (94.1%), the United States (39.6%), Vietnam (82.4%), the EU (30.3%) and Taiwan (41.8%). China, the United States and Vietnam together accounted for 51.9% of total exports.

Imports over the same period totaled $42.7 billion, up 20.0% from a year earlier. Semiconductors (54.9%), semiconductor manufacturing equipment (56.9%), crude oil (27.5%) and gas (27.9%) all saw import increases, with total energy imports rising 27.4%.

Imports grew from all major trading partners, including China (21.8%), the United States (17.1%), the EU (9.7%), Japan (14.6%) and Taiwan (45.7%).

With exports outpacing imports, the trade balance posted a surplus of $12.2 billion.


oskymoon@heraldcorp.com