Korea’s January Exports

Korea’s January Exports Decreased by Over 10%
Semiconductor exports continued to perform well, achieving over US$10 billion for nine consecutive months.

Due to the early Lunar New Year holiday and other factors, Korea’s January exports decreased by more than 10%, and the 15-month consecutive ‘export plus’ streak came to a halt.
The main product, semiconductor exports, continued to perform well, achieving over $10 billion for nine consecutive months, but automobile exports, which were largely affected by the decrease in operating days, fell by nearly 20%.

The January export amount totaled $49.12 billion, down 10.3% from the same month last year.
Korea’s exports turned positive in October 2023 compared to the same month the previous year, and continued to record positive growth for 15 consecutive months until December last year, but this positive trend ceased in January 2025.
Looking at the trends of the 15 main export items, excluding the two items that are the largest export items, namely, semiconductors and computers, exports of 13 items decreased compared to last year. However, based on the daily average exports, the exports of 10 items increased.
Semiconductor exports in January increased by 8.1% from last year to $10.1 billion, recording the second highest January performance after 2022 ($10.8 billion).
Semiconductor exports recorded more than $10 billion for nine consecutive months, continuing the year-on-year export plus trend for 15 consecutive months.
Despite the seasonal decrease in demand for information technology (IT) products and the decline in general memory prices, the semiconductor export boom continued as demand for high value-added memory products such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) and DDR5 remained strong due to the artificial intelligence (AI) craze.
Computer item exports, including solid state drives (SSDs), also increased by 14.8% to $800 million, continuing their 13th consecutive month of growth.
Automobile exports, the second largest export item, decreased by 19.6% to $5 billion. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) analyzed that the decrease in the number of operating days was greater than that of other industries as automakers including Hyundai Motors and parts manufacturers designated Friday following the Lunar New Year holiday as an additional holiday.
Amid the global electric vehicle (EV) chasm (temporary stagnation in demand), EV exports decreased by 50.3%, while internal combustion engine vehicle exports also decreased by 20.8%, but hybrid vehicle exports increased by 37.1%, continuing their steady growth. Auto parts exports also decreased by 17.2% to $1.57 billion.

 
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