South Korea's exports rose 83.5 percent year on year to a record $120.94 billion in September, the first month in which shipments have passed $120 billion, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said on October 1. Imports increased 26.0 percent to $71.09 billion, leaving a trade surplus of $49.85 billion — also a record, and the first time the monthly gap has exceeded $40 billion.
Semiconductors accounted for nearly half of the total. Chip exports jumped 262.8 percent from a year earlier to $60.3 billion, the first time a single product category has cleared $60 billion and $13.6 billion above the previous record of $46.7 billion set in August. Memory chips did most of the work: exports rose 358.6 percent to $54.07 billion from $11.79 billion a year earlier, while system chips increased 28.8 percent to $5.54 billion. Prices moved with volumes — a 16-gigabit DDR5 chip averaged $48 in September against $37.5 in May, and 128-gigabit NAND flash rose to $30.6 from $26.5 over the same period.
The AI build-out also lifted the computer category, where exports surged 435.3 percent to a record $7 billion; solid-state drives alone rose 532 percent to $6.77 billion from $1.07 billion. Even stripping out chips, total exports were still up 23 percent, helped by petroleum products at $7.22 billion (plus 72 percent), ships at $3.8 billion (plus 30 percent) and cosmetics at a record $1.51 billion (plus 31.4 percent). Wireless communication devices extended their growth streak to 11 consecutive months.
The gains were not uniform. Automobile exports fell 5.5 percent to $6.05 billion, which the ministry attributed to fewer working days after the Chuseok holiday fell in September this year rather than October, and to weaker used-car shipments; auto parts fell 7 percent, displays 9 percent and home appliances 13 percent. Working-day effects cut both ways: daily average exports reached a record $5.63 billion, up 104.9 percent and above $5 billion for the first time, precisely because the same volume was shipped in fewer days.
By destination, exports to China rose 122.7 percent to $26.01 billion, the fourth consecutive month above $20 billion, and shipments to the United States climbed 137.0 percent to $24.33 billion. Southeast Asia took $21.29 billion, up 92.6 percent and above $20 billion for the first time, and the European Union imported $8.65 billion, up 20.9 percent. Cumulative exports for January through September reached $814.5 billion, 56.8 percent higher than a year earlier and already above South Korea's previous full-year record of $709.3 billion, set in 2025.
What the numbers show is a trade account transformed by a single sector. Because chips are now close to half of all shipments, the headline growth rate is increasingly a function of memory prices and AI data-center spending rather than of broad-based industrial demand — a concentration that cuts both ways when the cycle turns. The ministry's own framing points to the same dependency: Trade, Industry and Resources Minister Kim Jung-kwan said the country is on track to reach $1 trillion in annual exports for the first time, while warning that spreading global protectionism and heightened Middle East tensions remain the main risks for the fourth quarter.
Two limits are worth keeping in view. First, the September figures are preliminary and are normally subject to revision. Second, a large part of the year-on-year jump reflects price rather than volume, and it is measured against a weak base: memory exports of $11.79 billion a year earlier were a fraction of September's $54.07 billion. Reaching $1 trillion would require a further $185.5 billion in the fourth quarter, which is why the government's own language is conditional on current momentum holding.
Sources
- [Yonhap News Agency — S. Korea's Sept. exports hit record US$120.9 bln on robust chip sales](en.yna.co.kr)
- [Yonhap News Agency — Finance minister expects exports to top US$1 tln this year](en.yna.co.kr)
- [Seoul Economic Daily — Korea's September Exports Hit Record $120.9 Billion on Chip Boom](en.sedaily.com)
