Our country's ICT exports in 2021 recorded the highest ever, driven by the highest export performance of key items such as semiconductors, mobile phones, and SSDs.

According to the ICT export and import trends announced by the government on the 12th, ICT exports in 2021 recorded $227.6 billion, up 24% year-on-year, and imports recorded $135 billion, up 19.9% year-on-year.

The trade balance recorded a surplus of $92.6 billion.

This increase in performance is because major items such as semiconductors have grown evenly in major markets, and each item has achieved its best performance ever.

By product, semiconductors recorded $128.7 billion, up 28.4% year-on-year, achieving the best performance ever. Memory semiconductors achieved the second-highest performance ever, recording $82.43 billion, up 28.9% year-on-year due to continued growth in demand for PCs, mobile devices, and servers, while system semiconductors achieved the highest performance ever, reaching $39.75 billion due to the boom in the foundry industry.

Displays increased 19% year-on-year to $24.66 billion. Of this, OLEDs increased 33.2% year-on-year to $14.53 billion. OLEDs achieved $10 billion early due to continued demand for TVs, premium phones, etc., and have achieved $10 billion for four consecutive years since 2018.

Mobile phones recorded $14 billion, up 24.7% year-on-year, driven by continued demand for new premium smartphones and high value-added components.

Computers and peripherals achieved the second-highest performance ever, recording $17.39 billion, up 25% year-on-year, driven by increased exports centered on auxiliary memory devices.

In particular, SSDs achieved $10 billion early as demand surged due to the acceleration of digital transformation, surpassing $10 billion for two consecutive years.


By country, exports increased across all countries, and in particular, exports to China and the European Union increased for all major items, including semiconductors, displays, mobile phones, computers, and peripherals.

China achieved its second-highest performance ever, with $107.53 billion, up 23.8% year-on-year. Major items such as semiconductors, displays, and mobile phones all increased.

Vietnam surpassed the $30 billion mark for the first time, with $35.1 billion, up 18 percent year-on-year. It has increased for two consecutive years, centered on semiconductors and displays, and OLED has exceeded 10 billion dollars for the first time.

The United States achieved its best performance ever, recording $27.95 billion, up 26.6 percent from the previous year.

The European Union recorded $12.77 billion, up 22.8 percent from the previous year.

Japan increased by 10.7% year-on-year to $4.32 billion.

In December 2021, ICT exports amounted to $22.14 billion, up 23.3% year-on-year, breaking the record for the highest monthly export amount in just one month.

By item, the spread of non-face-to-face industries continued, and all four items, including semiconductors, displays, mobile phones, and computers/peripherals, showed increases, leading the increase in ICT exports.

By country, exports to China and the European Union increased for all major items, including semiconductors, displays, mobile phones, computers, and peripherals, and all five major countries recorded increases for 8 to 24 consecutive months.

In December 2021, ICT imports increased by 24.3% year-on-year to $13.24 billion, and the trade balance recorded a surplus of $8.9 billion.