South Korea's exports rose 21.6% year-on-year to US$16.44 billion in the first 10 days of April due to strong global demand for semiconductors, according to data released by the Korea Customs Service on Thursday.
Imports increased 5.8% to US$18.4 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of US$2 billion.
Strong sales of semiconductors led to an increase in overall exports. In the first 10 days of April, South Korea's chip exports increased 45.5% year-on-year to US$2.57 billion. It accounted for 15.7% of total exports, an increase of 2.6 percentage points over the same period last year.
Automobile exports increased 8.6% to US$1.64 billion, and exports of petroleum products increased 13.3% to US$1.35 billion. Exports of steel products and auto parts also increased by 20.9% and 27.2%, respectively.
However, the export value of ships was 82 million US dollars, a decrease of 87.1% compared to the same period last year.
In terms of export destinations, exports to the US increased by 37.4% to reach 3.5 billion US dollars, and exports to China increased by 20.8% to reach 3.23 billion US dollars.
Exports to the European Union increased 8.6% to US$1.7 billion, while exports to Vietnam surged 46.7% to US$1.57 billion, to US$1.57 billion, to Japan increased 32.3% to US$858 million, and exports to India increased 24.7% to US$478 million.
The South Korean government expects exports to increase by 8.5% this year, reaching a record high of more than 700 billion US dollars.