The Korean International Trade Association recently released a report that thoroughly previews Korea's export situations. So far this year, three out of the top four spots for top exported items from Korea are occupied by IT related products. These popular IT products are cell phones, semiconductors, and display products, which are second, third, and fourth on the list. First on the list is vessels.
Currently, Korea is ninth in the world in total exports with total exports of about US$260 billion. This is an improvement from last year, when they were ranked twelfth in the world. The top four countries in exports are China, Germany, the United States, then Japan.
Three out of the top four export products are IT products, which hasn't happened since 2004 when semiconductors, cell phones, and computers were on the list. Last year, only one IT product was in the top five.
According to the Korean International Trade Association, last year's second, fifth, and sixth ranked exports were cell phones, semiconductors, and displays respectively. However, this year, the results came up differently. In this year alone, displays increased by 25.3% which ranked them at fourth on the list. Semiconductors is third on the list, while cell phones are second on the list.
The dramatic drops came from cars and oil, which both were in the top five last year, but dropped to fifth and seventh this year. On the other hand, display exports skyrocketed this year. In October alone, display exports were at about US$2.5 billion, a 47% increase from last year's US$1.7 billion in October. The gap between fourth and fifth place, which are display products and cars, is at about US$800 million. From the beginning of the year until the end of November, displays exported an amount of US$20.6 billion, while cars brought in about US$19.8 billion.
The top 3 IT products make up for almost 25% of all of Korea's exports. In comparison to last year's results, cell phones increased from 8.5% to 8.9%, semiconductors increased from 7.8% to 8.2%, and displays increased from 4.4% to 7.0%. All together, these three products make up for 24.1% of Korea's total exports.
Last year, Korea's IT products weren't that popular in the overseas market, but this year they have reclaimed themselves in the world's export market. Korea's IT related products are gradually becoming popular at the international level.
Noh Sung-ho, a district chief analyst stated, "Korea's IT products match well with the expectations and necessities for such countries like the United States and China. Also, the flexibility of the current exhange rate contributed to the export of Korea's IT products."
