Tech & AI
South Korea's October exports nearly double to a record $115.3bn as chip shipments jump 259%
Semiconductors made up roughly half of the month's shipments, official data show, reinforcing the AI-hardware demand trade.
HedgeWeekly Tech & AI Desk ·
South Korea's exports rose 93.7% from a year earlier to $115.3bn in October, a monthly record according to the trade ministry's preliminary figures published on 1 November. The ministry said the increase was driven largely by a sharp rise in semiconductor shipments.
Chip exports reached $56.4bn, up about 259%, and were roughly half of the month's total. That is the second month running above $50bn. Shipments of computers, a category that includes data-centre storage, rose almost sixfold to $5.85bn. Strip out chips and exports still grew 34%. Shipments to the US climbed 185.8% to $24.9bn and those to China 133.6% to $27.0bn. Imports rose 36% to $72.8bn, leaving a surplus of $42.5bn.
For January to October, exports totalled $930bn, up 60.6%, and the government says the $1 trillion mark for the year is all but certain to be passed in November.
Why it matters: Korea is the home of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the main makers of the high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators, so its trade data is one of the earliest monthly reads on AI hardware demand. The ministry attributed the surge to AI infrastructure investment by large technology companies. Export values reflect prices as well as volumes, so the figures do not by themselves show end-demand. Investors weighing recent concern over big-tech AI spending will watch whether November's data holds this pace.