SEOUL, July 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products hit a new high in the first half of this year on robust demand for semiconductors, a government report showed Wednesday.
The ICT product exports reached 90.87 billion U.S. dollars in the January-June period, up 19 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
It was the country's largest first-half figure, topping the previous high of 85.25 billion dollars tallied in the first half of 2015.
Semiconductor exports surged 51.9 percent over the year to 43.57 billion dollars in the first half, leading the record ICT product exports. It was attributable to higher prices for DRAM and NAND flash memory chips, growing demand for chips and the export diversification into system semiconductors.
Display panel exports jumped 14.3 percent on higher LCD panel prices and rising demand for OLED panels.
ICT product shipments to the European Union (EU) gained 17.2 percent to 5.18 billion dollars, and those to Japan rose 7.5 percent to 2.08 billion dollars.
Imports of ICT products increased 12.1 percent over the year to 48.49 billion dollars in the first half, sending the trade surplus to 42.38 billion dollars. It accounted for 92.5 percent of the total surplus in all industries.
