Chip export revenue drops 41.5% on year in February

Chip export revenue plunged 41.5 percent on year in February to $6.1 billion, weighed down by weak demand for electronics worldwide.

A semiconductor wafer displayed at the Semiconductor Exhibition held in October 2022 at COEX in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [NEWS1]

Chip export revenue plunged 41.5 percent on year in February to $6.1 billion, weighed down by weak demand for electronics worldwide.

System-on-chips export volume, which had been relatively strong compared to that of memory chips, also saw a decline for the second consecutive month.

Korea’s information and telecommunication technology export revenue shrank 32 percent on year in February to $12.8 billion, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT Tuesday.

In January, outbound shipments stood at $13.1 billion, down 33.2 percent on year.

It is the eighth consecutive on-year decline in monthly export volume.

As inbound shipments decreased 3.6 percent during the same period to $11 billion, the monthly trade surplus was $1.8 billion in February, compared to the previous year’s surplus of $7.5 billion.

IT technology’s contribution to total exports was 25.6 percent.

Semiconductors, which account for nearly half of total IT exports, saw yet another decline in outbound shipments to $6.1 billion, down 41.5 percent on year.

Memory chip exports nosedived by 53.9 percent to $2.9 billion as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash prices continued to stay low.

The price of DRAM was $1.81 in February, down from the average price of $2.21 in the October-December period last year.

System-on-chip exports also dropped 25.5 percent to $2.7 billion, which marked the second on-year decline in monthly export revenue. In January, system-on-chip export revenue stood at $2.9 billion, down 25 percent on year.

Display equipment and parts exports were $1.3 billion, down 42.2 percent on year.

Handset exports slipped 5.5 percent to $1 billion. Exports of computers and peripherals dropped 58.6 percent to $650 million, with solid-state drive exports plunging 72 percent to $370 million.

Exports to China, which is Korea’s largest IT product importer, declined 39.4 percent to $5.1 billion, with chip export volume shrinking 45 percent to $3.2 billion.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]