Soaring global demand for semiconductors fueled by a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) sent South Korea’s exports to their highest-ever level last year, official data showed yesterday.
Total exports last year were valued at more than US$700 billion, up 3.8 percent from the previous year, South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy data showed.
The worldwide surge in interest in AI saw semiconductor industry exports reach US$173.4 billion last year — a record high and an increase of more than 20 percent from the previous year, the ministry said.
Photo: AP
High-priced memory chips used in AI data centers were in strong demand, the ministry added.
Semiconductor exports last month alone rose more than 40 percent year-on-year, posting gains for a 10th consecutive month and marking a record-high monthly figure.
South Korean tech juggernaut Samsung Electronics Co is one of the world’s top memorychip makers, providing crucial components for the AI industry and the infrastructure it relies on.
The country is also home to SK Hynix Inc, a key player in the global semiconductor market.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has vowed to triple spending on AI this year, aiming to propel the nation into the world’s top three AI powers behind the US and China.
Vehicles, South Korea’s other key export, performed strongly, with auto shipments rising to US$72 billion, the highest on record despite US tariff pressures.
Other sectors such as agriculture and cosmetics also recorded their highest-ever figures, buoyed by strong global interest in the country’s pop culture powerhouse, its food and beauty products.
Exports rose everywhere except to the US and China, weighed down by tariffs on steel, automobiles and machinery.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy was initially hit with a 25 percent across-the-board tariff by the US, but secured a last-minute agreement for a reduced 15 percent rate.
South Korea is one of Washington’s biggest trade partners.
The new record was “achieved amid challenging domestic and external conditions,” South Korean Minister of Trade and Industry Kim Jung-kwan said in a statement.
It “serves as an indicator of the South Korean economy’s solid resilience and growth potential,” he said.
However, “export conditions this year are expected to remain difficult, as uncertainties persist in the trade environment, including the sustainability of semiconductor demand,” he added.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
RSS