The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on April 13 that Korea's exports and imports of information and communications technology (ICT) goods in March recorded USD 15.8 billion (down 32.2 percent year-on-year) and $11.9 billion (down 7.9 percent), respectively. Trade balance stood at a surplus of $4.0 billion.

ICT exports contracted for the ninth consecutive month as the global economic downturn and semiconductor industry slowdown continued, but export value recovered $15.0 billion thresholds for the first time in three months.

Semiconductor (down 33.9 percent to $8.7 billion) shipments fell and unit price continued to drop, dragging down exports of system chips (down 18.4 percent to $3.6 billion) and memory chips (down 44.3 percent to $4.6 billion) as well.

Display exports declined 41.4 percent to $1.4 billion as lower demand for downstream devices shrank shipments of OLED (down 35.9 percent to $0.9 billion), while reduced domestic production decreased LCD (down 53.3 percent to $0.3 billion) shipments.

Mobile phone exports slid 49.3 percent to $0.8 billion due to slow global demand for devices and phone parts (down 34.1 percent to $0.6 billion).

Computers and peripherals (down 52.5 percent to $0.9 billion) decreased in shipments as demand for electronic devices and solid-state drives (SSDs) for datacenters and servers dropped 62.1 percent to $0.5 billion.

Communications equipment shipments (down 9.2 percent to $0.2 billion) enjoyed expansion of 5G infrastructure export to Vietnam (up 9.6 percent) and India (up 90.9 percent), but sluggish global economy dampened overall demand.

By region, shipments to China and Hong Kong (down 40.1 percent to $6.3 billion) decreased as demand for major items like semiconductors, displays and mobile phones diminished.

Shipments to Vietnam (down 20.0 percent to $2.8 billion) declined from weak demand for downstream industries and falling unit prices of core parts, reducing shipments of semiconductors and displays.

For the U.S. (down 33.3 percent to $1.9 billion) secondary battery shipments (up 18.8 percent to $0.4 billion) increased, but those of semiconductors, computers and peripherals dropped.

To the EU (down 30.2 percent to $1.0 billion), semiconductors, displays and mobile phones decreased in exports.

To Japan (down 10.7 percent to $0.4 billion), demand for secondary batteries (up 0.5 percent to $40 million) and semiconductors (up 38.3 percent to $0.2 billion) grew, while that of displays contracted.