Football World Cup in Germany likely to boost sales of Korean IT products The nation's exports of IT products are expected to regain double-digit growth this year thanks to rising demand for digital TV and DMB phones. In 2005, IT exports increased by a mere 5 percent to $78 billion owing to a fall in export unit prices. As the demand for Korean-made digital TV and DMB phones is likely to soar on the occasion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the nation's IT exports are expected to rise by 13.2 percent to $88.3 billion in 2006. Although there are still uncertainties such as the U.S. hike in interest rates, exchange rates and high oil prices, the declining pace of semiconductors and LCDs has been slowed and the global economy for 2006 is likely to grow at a level similar to the previous year. Exports of semiconductors and handsets rising Exports of semiconductors are expected to go up by 12.2 percent from $30.2 billion in 2005 to $33.9 billion in 2006 thanks to rising demands for flash memory. Those of handsets are likely to increase by 10.8 percent from $24.6 billion to $27.3 billion during the corresponding period due to soaring demands for high functional terminals supporting new DMB services. Overseas shipments of LCDs are likely to go up by 29 percent from $7.4 billion in 2005 to $9.6 billion in 2006, while those of digital TVs are expected to rise by 18 percent from $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion. Last year, IT exports increased by 5 percent to $78 billion and IT imports rose by 8.8 percent to $44.2 billion, posting a trade surplus of $33.7 billion in the IT balance. The increase rate of IT exports slowed down sharply from 29.9 percent in 2004 to 5 percent in 2005, mainly owing to stiff competition among exporters of main IT products, including memory semiconductors and mobile phones, and a fall in export unit price, the official said. However, Korean handset makers chalked up a 25-percent rise in cell phone exports last year at 200 million units, from 160 million phones in the previous year. Samsung and LG lead the field Samsung, the world's third-largest mobile phone provider, headed the expansion by shipping 100 million units and the fourth-biggest player LG also exported 70 million units. However, the global market grew as fast with the world's demands for cell phones expanding up to 16 percent to 780 million units last year from 670 million in 2004. As a result, they hardly picked up any market share. Samsung now accounts for roughly 13 percent of the market while LG carves out about 7 percent, almost the same compared to 12 months ago. Nokia is a runaway leader with a share of about 30 percent while runner-up player Motorola has widened the gap with Samsung this year by exploiting almost a fifth of global sales. In the local market, companies have suffered from a lack of growth momentum throughout last year as the full-way number portability system triggered less demand than expected. Starting last year, mobile customers were allowed to switch their carriers but could keep their old numbers regardless of operators. When number portability was phased in for limited carriers, in January 2004, the new system prodded people to change their phones en masse in that year. But such a buying spree did not take place last year, causing the annual handset sales in Korea to plunge to 14 million units, down 12.5 percent from 16 million units in 2004. DMB enables people on the road to enjoy crystal-clear video, CD-quality audio and data through in-car terminals or handheld gizmos like cell phones.