[Anchor]
South Korea's monthly exports have surpassed $100 billion for the first time in history. With semiconductors leading the growth, there are projections that the country could reach $1 trillion in annual exports.
Reporter Jung Jun-ho has the story.
[Reporter]
Exports for last month were recorded at $102.25 billion, an increase of 71% compared to the same period last year.
This figure far exceeds the previous record of $87.8 billion set in May.
South Korea is now the fourth country in the world to reach $100 billion in monthly exports, following Germany, China, and the United States.
Semiconductors were clearly the driving force behind this export growth.
Semiconductor exports surged by 200% compared to the same month last year, reaching $44.8 billion, which accounts for nearly half of the total export value.
This is largely due to the fact that South Korean memory chips have become essential components for global companies competing for dominance in the AI era, coupled with a rise in prices.
[Jensen Huang / NVIDIA CEO (June 8): SK is our biggest memory semiconductor partner. Without SK, the AI industry today would not have grown to this extent.]
As the price of memory semiconductors has nearly doubled this year, semiconductor exports in the first half of the year have already surpassed the total semiconductor export value for the entirety of last year.
With the global increase in AI infrastructure investment, exports of computers, which include data storage devices, rose by over 300%. Additionally, the AI effect has spread across major export industries, with steel exports turning positive for the first time in 14 months due to increased demand for steel bars needed for data center construction.
[Kang Gam-chan / Director General for Trade and Investment, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy: Among the top 20 major export items, 18 have seen an increase. We recorded a monthly trade surplus of over $30 billion for the first time in history.]
The government expects semiconductor prices to continue rising in the second half of the year, projecting that the country could reach $1 trillion in annual exports and climb to 4th place globally.
Bolstered by the strong performance in semiconductor exports, major domestic and international institutions are successively raising their growth forecasts, with Capital Economics of the UK projecting South Korea's growth rate to reach 4% this year.
Reported by Jung Jun-ho | Video by Lee So-young | Graphics by Seo Seung-hyun
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