Significant Increase in Korea’s September Exports

Increasing 12.7% year-on-year

 Korea’s exports in September this year increased by over 12%, compared to the previous year. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), exports last month totaled US$65.95 billion (approximately KRW 93 trillion), a 12.7% increase year-on-year. Despite U.S. tariff pressure, exports continued to grow for four consecutive months from June to September this year.
Exports increased for 10 of the 15 major export items, including semiconductors and automobiles. Semiconductor exports, in particular, continued their record high in September, following August, driven by strong demand for high-value-added memory, particularly for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. However, exports of petrochemicals and steel decreased by 2.8% and 4.2%, respectively, compared to the previous year due to declining export prices.
Display exports, which had been sluggish, rose by 1.3% to $1.92 billion. This growth was driven by the expanded adoption of OLED panels in IT devices and a partial recovery in demand from downstream industries such as mobile phones and laptops.
Mobile phone component exports decreased by $1.07 billion, or 23.6%, due to intensifying competition among component manufacturers. However, finished-product exports increased by $420 million, or 55.8%, narrowing the decline.
Computer and peripheral device exports decreased by 10.1% to $1.47 billion.This was a base effect, reflecting the surge in exports of solid-state drives (SSDs) for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers last year. However, the decline was offset by a 69.2% surge in SSD exports to the Netherlands, a European data center hub. Regional export trends show that Taiwan, which saw a significant increase in semiconductor exports, recorded $4.29 billion, a 53.5% year-on-year increase.
Regionally, exports increased in eight of the nine major regions, excluding the United States, which imposed reciprocal and product tariffs. Exports to China, which had been negative for the past four months, increased by 0.5% last month to $11.68 billion. Exports to the USA decreased by 1.4% during the same period.
Last month, Korea’s total imports reached $56.4 billion, an 8.2% increase from the same period last year. This resulted in a positive trade balance of $9.6 billion, calculated by subtracting imports from exports.

 
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