Seoul, Feb 14 (IANS) Exports by South Korea’s 10 largest companies accounted for nearly 40 per cent of all outbound shipments last year, reaching a record high, largely driven by strong semiconductor sales, government data showed on Saturday.
In 2025, outbound shipments by the top 10 exporters accounted for 39 per cent of the country’s total exports, up 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, reports Yonhap news agency.
“The concentration level is the highest on record, with increased semiconductor shipments having the largest impact,” said Jung Kyu-seong, a ministry official.
Outbound shipments from the country’s two major chipmakers — Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc. — helped drive overall export growth amid artificial intelligence (AI) upcycle.
The top 100 companies accounted for 67.1 per cent of exports in 2025, up 0.4 percentage point from the previous year, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products jumped 78 per cent in January from a year earlier, backed by global demand over artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure projects, data showed Thursday.
Outbound shipments of ICT products reached US$29 billion, compared with $16.2 billion tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT. It marks the highest export volume for any January.
Imports moved up 20 per cent to $14 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $14.9 billion. The ministry attributed the sharp growth to the rapidly expanding global AI industry, which led to stronger demand for high-performance ICT products.
Exports of semiconductor products more than doubled on-year in January to $20.5 billion, buoyed by higher global memory prices and steady demand for premium products, such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips.
Outbound shipments of displays gained 19 per cent over the period to $1.5 billion, led by organic light-emitting diode (OLED) products, the data showed.
—IANS
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