South Korea's exports topped $120 billion in a single month for the first time, nearly matching the country's entire annual shipments of 31 years ago. With a semiconductor-led export boom bringing annual shipments of $1 trillion within reach, the government said growth above 3% is now in sight for this year.
September exports rose 83.5% from a year earlier to $120.94 billion, an all-time high, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on the 4th. The milestone came just three months after monthly exports first passed $100 billion in June. Average daily exports, which adjust for the number of working days, climbed 105% to $5.63 billion, exceeding $5 billion for the first time.
Korea's annual exports first surpassed $120 billion in 1995, when the figure reached $125.1 billion. Measured in nominal dollars without adjusting for inflation, the country now sells abroad in one month what it took a full year to ship three decades ago. The September figure is also more than double last year's monthly average of about $59.1 billion.
The gap to $1 trillion in annual exports has narrowed sharply. Cumulative exports for January through September reached $814.5 billion, already exceeding last year's full-year total of $709.3 billion. Shipping $185.5 billion over the remaining three months, or about $61.8 billion a month, would deliver the first $1 trillion year on record.
"Reaching $1 trillion is a very strong possibility," said Kang Gam-chan, director-general for trade and investment at the ministry. "If monthly exports of $100 billion continue for about two months, we expect to hit $1 trillion in late November or early December."
The government expects the export strength to be followed by gains in investment, consumption and employment. "As investment, consumption and employment improve with a time lag, growth above 3% and per-capita national income of $40,000 are coming into view this year," Deputy Prime Minister and Finance and Economy Minister Lee Hyoung-il said the same day at a joint meeting of the emergency economic task force and economy-related ministers.
Semiconductors drove the surge. September chip exports jumped 262.8% from a year earlier to $60.3 billion, surpassing the previous record of $46.7 billion set in August just one month earlier. Exports of that single category now exceed Korea's monthly average for all products last year. Semiconductors accounted for 49.9% of total exports, or roughly half.
The gains reflect rising memory demand from expanded artificial intelligence data center investment, combined with higher prices. The fixed contract price for DDR5, the mainstay DRAM product, rose 28% from $37.50 in May to $48 in September on a 16-gigabit basis. NAND flash prices, on a 128-gigabit basis, also rose from $26.50 to $30.60 over the same period. Higher prices and larger export volumes together lifted the figures.
The AI boom also spread to data storage. As demand grew for enterprise solid-state drives used in servers, computer exports rose 435.3% to $7 billion, a record high. Combined exports of semiconductors and computers totaled $67.3 billion, or 55.6% of the overall figure.
Other categories also contributed. Excluding semiconductors, exports rose 23% from a year earlier. Ship exports gained 29.9% to $3.76 billion, while cosmetics rose 31.4% to $1.51 billion, a record. Automobile exports fell 5.5% on fewer working days and weak used-car shipments, though average daily exports rose 5.5%.
AI investment and memory prices are the key variables for the export outlook. Kang said the semiconductor boom could continue through the first half of next year if high unit prices and rising volumes persist on the back of memory demand from AI data centers.
