4월 ICT수출 전년동월대비 10.6% 감소..."메모리 반도체 단가 하락 영향"<br /><br />More disappointing news for South Korea's already struggling exports.<br />Shipments from the ICT sector last month continued to fall.<br />Our Ko Roon-hee explains why. <br />South Korea's exports of ICT products fell again in April... which could be another alarming sign for the nation's export-reliant economy. <br />According to the Trade Ministry on Tuesday, Korea's ICT exports slumped by 10-point-6 percent on-year last month... marking around 15-point-2 billion U.S. dollars. The figure has been dropping on-year for six consecutive months now... and the ministry has said poor semiconductor exports are behind the fall. <br />Chip exports decreased by more than 13-percent during the same period... because of falling prices in the memory chip sector. <br />Spot prices of 4 Gigabit DRAM fell to 2-point-25 U.S. dollars... which is a huge drop from December's figure of 3-point-03 dollars. <br /> Analysts say that the market has been suffering from oversupply and lower-than-expected demand from data centers.<br />This has hit Korean exports hard... as semiconductors account for more than 55-percent of total ICT exports.<br />Outbound shipments of displays, another key export item, decreased by more than 16-percent.<br />This was mainly due to the rising competition from China in the LCD panel industry. <br />On a brighter note, exports of smartphones and computers increased.<br />In terms of export destinations, shipments to China slumped by more than 15-percent... while exports to the U.S. jumped slightly.<br />The ministry says... many Chinese consumers are purchasing locally manufactured products. <br />Meanwhile, the amount of imports increased slightly to around 9-point-5 billion dollars,... bringing the trade surplus to around 5-point-7 billion.<br />To boost falling exports, the South Korean government has been venturing into new semiconductor areas... such as the non-memory field.<br />Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News. <br />
