South Korea posted its highest-ever exports for the month of January, official data showed yesterday, fuelled by a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom heavily reliant on chips made in the country.
The total value of last month’s exports was US$65.8 billion, a 33.9 percent rise year-on-year, South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said in a statement, marking the first time they surpassed a US$60 billion threshold for the month.
Home to the world’s leading memory-chip makers, South Korean products have become crucial to AI infrastructure. Technology giants Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc both posted record quarterly operating profits in the October-December period.
Photo: Shin Yong-ju, AFP
“Semiconductor exports came in at US$20.5 billion, a 102.7 percent increase” year-on-year, the ministry said, the second-highest monthly chips exports.
The record was set a month earlier, when the country exported chips worth US$20.8 billion.
Automobile exports increased 21.7 percent year-on-year to US$6 billon thanks to the strong performance of hybrid and electric cars, it said.
The data comes as Seoul is scrambling to respond to US President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier last week that he was raising tariffs on South Korean goods to 25 percent from 15 percent, accusing the South Korean legislature of not having ratified their trade deal.
Seoul and Washington struck a deal in October last year, with Seoul pledging investment in the US in exchange for slicing tariffs from 25 to 15 percent.
Seoul’s presidential office insisted in November last year that the deal does not require parliamentary approval, arguing it represents a memorandum of understanding rather than a binding legal document.
South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Kim Jung-kwan met his US counterpart Howard Lutnick in Washington following the hike announcement and returned to Seoul on Saturday.
“There was considerable disappointment (from the US) over the fact that the special bill remains pending in the National Assembly,” Kim told reporters at the airport, adding that talks would continue.
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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
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