The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy released the annual and December export and import trends for 2024 on the 1st. In 2024, our country's exports totaled 683.8 billion dollars, an 8.2% increase from the previous year and the highest performance ever.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the world's export rankings by WTO standards were achieved at 6th place, and among the major export items, semiconductor exports recorded 141.9 billion dollars, up 43.9%, renewing the best performance in two years. Semiconductor exports have continued to increase for 14 consecutive months, and in particular, exports in the fourth quarter were analyzed to have increased due to the expansion of exports of high value-added items such as DDR5 and HBM.

December exports reached $61.38 billion, the highest monthly export figure. Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Deok-geun evaluated the situation by saying, “It is the result of our companies doing their best in the global market despite the difficult external export conditions and domestic political situation, such as the continued high interest rates and high prices globally, the Russo-Russian War, and the situation in the Middle East.”

Looking at the export performance by major item, it recorded: △wireless communications 17.2 billion dollars, △displays 18.7 billion dollars, △computers 13.1 billion dollars, △automobiles 70.7 billion dollars, △automobile parts 22.5 billion dollars, △general machinery 51.2 billion dollars, △ships 25.6 billion dollars, △petroleum products 50.2 billion dollars, △petrochemicals 47.9 billion dollars, △biohealth 15 billion dollars, △home appliances 7.9 billion dollars, △textiles 10.4 billion dollars, △steel 33.2 billion dollars, and △secondary batteries 8.2 billion dollars.

It is interpreted that all IT items recorded a surplus due to the launch of new IT products such as PCs and mobile devices and the increase in the supply of enterprise SSDs, and the automobile sector continued to show good performance despite the electric vehicle chasm due to brisk exports of internal combustion engine vehicles and hybrid vehicles.

The major export regions were China, which was the largest export market at $133 billion, followed by the United States at $127.7 billion, ASEAN at $114 billion, the EU at $68 billion, Japan at $29.5 billion, Central and South America at $29 billion, the Middle East at $19.7 billion, India at $18.7 billion, and the CIS at $11.6 billion.

China's largest export item was semiconductors, reaching $45.9 billion. In the U.S. market, automobiles were the largest at $34.2 billion, and general machinery and semiconductors showed export performances in the 10 billion won range. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy emphasized that semiconductor exports increased by 123% year-on-year, driven by increased investment in AI servers by U.S. big tech companies.

It is noteworthy that, despite achieving a trade surplus for 14 consecutive months due to semiconductor-centered activities, the outlook for future exports is not entirely optimistic. Domestic semiconductors are still heavily dependent on exports to China, and there are concerns that the US-China trade war could have a negative impact on major semiconductor exports if Trump takes office for a second term.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that it will expand the scale of trade insurance supply to over 250 trillion won as a policy to secure liquidity in order to minimize risks for export companies and focus 100 trillion won of this on small and medium-sized companies.

Minister Ahn said, “We will work with a public-private team to minimize the negative impact of the external uncertainties caused by the inauguration of the new U.S. administration, which is about a month away, and make the most of new opportunities to fully support our economy and businesses.”