South Korea's average daily exports reached a record 6.4 trillion won ($4.7 billion) in October as the semiconductor supercycle continued.
Exports totaled $61.61 billion during the first 20 days of this month, up 105.4% from a year earlier, according to preliminary trade data released by the Korea Customs Service on the 21st. That marks the highest figure ever recorded for an Oct. 1-20 period.
Adjusted for the 13 working days in the period, average daily exports rose 65.9% to $4.74 billion. That is the highest ever based on the first-20-day statistics for any month, surpassing the previous record of about $4.6 billion set in September this year, when there were 15.5 working days.
Applying the average exchange rate for the period of 1,341.83 won to the dollar, the country exported 6.36 trillion won worth of goods each day.
By product, semiconductor exports climbed 222.5% to $27.516 billion. Chip exports also set a record for an Oct. 1-20 period.
Semiconductors accounted for 44.7% of total exports, up 16.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
Other gainers included computer peripherals, up 424.0%, petroleum products, up 68.3%, passenger cars, up 40.9%, steel products, up 42.6%, and ships, up 6.9%.
Among major destinations, exports rose 154.4% to China, 154.9% to the U.S., 74.6% to Vietnam, 78.2% to the European Union and 36.7% to Taiwan. The top three markets — China, the U.S. and Vietnam — together took 52.7% of total exports.
Imports rose 42.8% to $47.117 billion over the same period. By item, semiconductor imports gained 78.4%, crude oil 42.9%, gas 112.4% and machinery 43.7%. Imports of energy, including crude oil, gas and coal, rose 53.5%.
With exports exceeding imports, the trade balance posted a surplus of $14.496 billion.