SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's information and communications technology (ICT) product exports reduced 6.6 percent in July from a year earlier due to weak demand from the country's top two trading partners, China and the United States, a government report showed on Thursday.
ICT exports reached 13.02 billion U.S. dollars last month, down from 13.93 billion U.S. dollars a year ago, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
It marked the 10th consecutive on-year decline since October last year.
It was attributable to soft demand from China and the United States, toward which South Korea's exports retreated 9.5 percent and 10.7 percent respectively. Those to the European Union (EU) slumped 8.2 percent, but shipments to Vietnam jumped 24 percent.
By item, chip exports shed 2.6 percent in July, falling at a faster pace than the previous month when semiconductor shipments inched down 0.5 percent.
Display panel shipment tumbled 19.2 percent in July from a year ago, with those for mobile phones sliding 10.1 percent amid fiercer competition with Chinese manufacturers.
ICT product imports shed 6.4 percent to 7.2 billion dollars, sending the July trade surplus in the ICT sector to 5.82 billion dollars.
During the January-July period, ICT exports tumbled 10 percent to 282.85 billion dollars compared with the same period of last year. Imports plunged 13.5 percent to 225.75 billion dollars, sending the ICT trade surplus to 57.1 billion dollars in the cited period.
