Korea’s Exports Top $800 Billion in 9 Months, a Record

According to September trade data released today by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, South Korea's exports last month totaled about $120.9 billion, up 83.5% from the same month a year earlier. It's the first time monthly exports have cleared $120 billion, and it blows past the previous record of about $102.0 billion, set in June. Adjusted for working days, average daily exports rose to about $5.6 billion, topping $5 billion for the first time, with growth of 105%.

On a cumulative basis, exports from January through September come to about $814.5 billion. That means Korea beat last year's full-year record of about $709.3 billion in just nine months. The country is about $185.5 billion short of the $1 trillion mark for the year, and the government says it expects to get there in 2026.

Chips drove the surge. Semiconductor exports topped $60 billion in a single month for the first time, up 262.8% from a year earlier and well above the previous monthly high of about $46.7 billion in August. They accounted for 49.9% of all exports, nearly half. With memory demand holding strong, both shipment volumes and fixed contract prices climbed. Between May and September, the price of a DDR5 16Gb chip rose from $37.5 to $48, and a NAND 128Gb chip went from $26.5 to $30.6.

Other categories moved up too. Computer exports jumped 435.3% to a monthly record of about $7.0 billion, helped by rising AI infrastructure spending and demand for enterprise SSDs. Cosmetics set another monthly high at about $1.5 billion, and wireless communications devices posted an 11th straight month of growth. Autos were the exception, falling 5.5% as the timing of the Chuseok (Korean harvest festival) holiday and weak used-car sales weighed on shipments. By region, China took about $26.0 billion and the U.S. about $24.3 billion. ASEAN topped $20 billion for the first time, at about $21.3 billion.

Imports in September were about $71.1 billion, up 26.0%. That left a trade surplus of about $49.9 billion, and the cumulative surplus for January through September now tops $250 billion. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan called the results proof of Korean industry's competitiveness. He added that the government will act early so unexpected external shocks don't drag on exports, aiming to keep the upswing going in the fourth quarter.