South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Tuesday it expects the country’s exports to continue growing thanks to the recovery in exports of key products such as semiconductors.

“The export growth and surplus will continue in March 2024 due to the continued favorable trend in exports of key items, including semiconductors and other information technology (IT) products,” First Vice Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy Kang Kyung-sung said during a meeting on exports held at the government complex in Sejong City on Tuesday.

Korea‘s exports have seen five consecutive months of growth until February 2024 after turning positive in October 2023. The combined exports for the first two months of 2024 totaled $107.2 billion, up 11.2 percent from the same period a year ago.

“Exports, one of the three pillars of our economy alongside consumption and investment, are on a clear upward trend, and will continue to serve as a key driver of our economic growth in 2024,” Kang said, adding, that “the government will continue to mobilize all available resources to support these pillars.”

The government has set a target of achieving a historic high of $700 billion in exports for 2024, with specific export targets set for key items such as $120 billion for semiconductors and $75 billion for automobiles.

To achieve this goal, the government will increase the amount of trade finance support to a record high of 360 trillion won ($269.14 billion) in 2024 to help small and medium-sized enterprises as well as large corporations to stably expand exports.

During the meeting, the ministry expected semiconductor exports, which grew 61.4 percent in January and February 2024, to continue to show significant improvement due to the recovery in demand from frontline industries such as servers and mobile phones alongside the expansion of demand for high-value-added items such as high bandwidth memory (HBM).

The ministry also expected automobile exports, which hit a record high of $70.9 billion in 2023, to continue to show a favorable trend, particularly in the United States.

By Pulse

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]