Heavyweight! In November, South Korea‘s semiconductor exports dropped by nearly 30 year on year

Introduction: Last month, according to foreign media reports, when the demand for consumer electronic products declined, the demand for memory chips also declined, leading to a decline in both shipments and prices, the export volume of Korean semiconductor products has also declined for three consecutive months since August.

    On December 2, it was reported by foreign media that South Korea‘s semiconductor exports, which had declined year-on-year for three consecutive months, were still declining year-on-year in November, and there was also a significant decline in the month on month ratio.

    Looking back on the feedback from last month, although the export volume of Korean semiconductor products has declined year-on-year for three consecutive months, the export of their semiconductor products this year is still considerable.

    According to the data released earlier by the Korea Trade Association, the export volume of Korean semiconductor products reached 102.5 billion dollars in the first three quarters of this year. On average, the monthly export of Korean semiconductor products reached US $11.389 billion.

    However, the data released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea at the beginning of last month showed that the export volume of Korean semiconductor products in October fell by 17.4% year on year, to 9.23 billion US dollars, also less than the 11.49 billion US dollars last month.

    At that time, it was believed that if the export of Korean semiconductor products could not be improved in November and December compared with October, their export of semiconductor products this year might be less than 130 billion dollars.

    In fact, the latest data released by the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Thursday showed that the export volume of South Korean semiconductor products in November fell 29.8% year on year, to 8.45 billion US dollars.

    According to the news released by South Korea, the export volume of their semiconductor products fell sharply in November on a year-on-year basis because of the decline in demand and chip prices.

    The year-on-year decline in November means that South Korea‘s semiconductor exports have continued to decline since August this year.

    In August this year, South Korea‘s semiconductor exports fell again after 26 months, to 10.78 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decline of 7.8%; USD 11.49 billion in September, a month on month increase, but a year-on-year decline of 5.7%; In October, there was a sharp year-on-year decline, including a year-on-year decline of 17.4% to 9.23 billion US dollars.

    The export volume in November fell to 8.45 billion US dollars, which means that the probability of the export volume of Korean semiconductor products being less than 130 billion US dollars this year is increasing. As mentioned above, Korean Trade Association data shows that the export volume of Korean semiconductor products in the first three quarters of this year was 102.5 billion US dollars, including 9.23 billion US dollars in October and 8.45 billion US dollars in November. The total export volume in the first 11 months was 120.18 billion US dollars.

    As we all know, South Korea‘s semiconductor exports are mainly memory chips. They include Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, two major memory chip manufacturers. Semiconductors are important exports of South Korea, accounting for about 20% of their exports. The export of semiconductor products also has an important impact on their overall export situation.

    In addition, South Korea‘s Asian Economy reported that at the end of last month, statistics released by the Korea Trade Association showed that South Korea‘s semiconductor exports to China in the first nine months of this year amounted to $42.025 billion, accounting for 40.6% of the overall export to China, up 1.3 percentage points year-on-year. The dependence on China‘s semiconductor exports has deepened. According to the report, in South Korea‘s trade with China, semiconductor exports accounted for 44.2% of the total exports in 2015, dropped to 38.9% the following year, and have been hovering around 40% since then.

    Data shows that in the first nine months of this year, South Korea‘s semiconductor exports to the United States accounted for 6.5% of its total exports to the United States, down 0.6 percentage points year on year, while its exports to Japan fell 0.1 percentage points, only 1%. Although the proportion of exports to Singapore (4.3%) and the EU (3%) increased, the increase was about 1%.

    Yonhap said that some Korean experts believed that the high dependence of semiconductor products on China‘s exports was the main reason for the decline of the overall semiconductor exports this year. Since this year, South Korea‘s semiconductor export growth has continued to decline in a single month, turning to negative growth from August. The cumulative semiconductor export volume in the first nine months has decreased significantly by 19.1% year-on-year.

    During the same period, South Korea‘s semiconductor exports to China decreased by 16.3%, mainly due to the decrease in China‘s semiconductor demand, which led to the weakness of memory semiconductor prices.