south korea's exports in august: automobiles and chips show "two different trends"
2024-09-03
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zhang ludan, our special correspondent in south koreathe korea times reported on september 1 that south korea's exports grew for the 11th consecutive month in august due to strong demand for chips. according to the latest data released by the ministry of trade, industry and energy, south korea's exports in august were us$57.9 billion, up 11.4% from the same period last year. the upward trend in exports was driven by semiconductors, the largest export product, with product exports approaching us$12 billion, setting a new record for august.according to south korea's chosun ilbo, in addition to a 38.8% surge in semiconductors compared to the same period last year, exports of seven major products including wireless communication equipment, computers, ships, petroleum, and chemicals also increased.driven by the ai boom, south korea's semiconductor exports have been growing for several consecutive months, with a year-on-year increase of 50.4% in july. data shows that south korea's semiconductor exports exceeded us$10 billion again in december last year, and began to recover. according to reports, if the current trend continues, south korea's semiconductor exports this year are expected to exceed the us$129.2 billion set in 2022, setting a new record high.it is reported that, against the backdrop of increased semiconductor exports, south korea's overall export growth rate in the first half of this year reached 9.1%, making it the country with the highest growth rate among the world's top ten exporters. a trade policy official from the ministry of trade, industry and energy of south korea said: "large technology companies have expanded their investment in artificial intelligence servers, the it industry has improved across the board, and the prices of memory chips dram (dynamic random access memory) and nand memory have risen by more than 58% and 28% respectively." in this regard, cho sang-hyun, director of the international trade and commerce research institute of the korea international trade association, believes that if external conditions, including the us interest rate cut, improve further in september, south korea's export momentum, mainly semiconductors, may be maintained until the end of this year.in terms of destination, according to the korea times, driven by strong performance of semiconductors and mobile devices, south korea's exports to china increased by 7.9% to $11.4 billion. south korea's exports to the united states increased by 11.1% year-on-year to $10 billion, with chips, computers and rechargeable batteries leading the overall increase.on the other hand, the export data of automobiles, which is also the main engine of south korea's economic growth, is not good. according to the chosun ilbo, as of august this year, the export value of automobiles was 47.4 billion us dollars, which remained at the same level as the same period last year (46.8 billion us dollars). in particular, it has been showing a negative growth trend for three consecutive months. in july, south korea's automobile exports fell by 9.1% year-on-year.according to the korea automobile mobility industry association, south korea's electric vehicle exports from january to july this year fell 21% compared with the same period last year. exports have been affected as the growth momentum of electric vehicle sales in the united states and europe, the main export regions of the korean automobile industry, has weakened. data shows that from april to june this year, electric vehicle sales in the united states were about 330,000 units, an increase of only 11% year-on-year, and electric vehicle sales in europe from january to july increased by 0.6% year-on-year to only 1.09 million units. however, some predict that if hyundai motor and kia's small electric vehicles casper electric and ev3 are launched in the united states, europe and other places, electric vehicle exports may rebound again. ▲
