4월 ICT수출 전년동월대비 10.6% 감소..."메모리 반도체 단가 하락 영향"

More disappointing news for South Korea's already struggling exports.
Shipments from the ICT sector last month continued to fall.
Our Ko Roon-hee explains why.
South Korea's exports of ICT products fell again in April... which could be another alarming sign for the nation's export-reliant economy.
According to the Trade Ministry on Tuesday, Korea's ICT exports slumped by 10-point-6 percent on-year last month... marking around 15-point-2 billion U.S. dollars. The figure has been dropping on-year for six consecutive months now... and the ministry has said poor semiconductor exports are behind the fall.
Chip exports decreased by more than 13-percent during the same period... because of falling prices in the memory chip sector.
Spot prices of 4 Gigabit DRAM fell to 2-point-25 U.S. dollars... which is a huge drop from December's figure of 3-point-03 dollars.
Analysts say that the market has been suffering from oversupply and lower-than-expected demand from data centers.
This has hit Korean exports hard... as semiconductors account for more than 55-percent of total ICT exports.
Outbound shipments of displays, another key export item, decreased by more than 16-percent.
This was mainly due to the rising competition from China in the LCD panel industry.
On a brighter note, exports of smartphones and computers increased.
In terms of export destinations, shipments to China slumped by more than 15-percent... while exports to the U.S. jumped slightly.
The ministry says... many Chinese consumers are purchasing locally manufactured products.
Meanwhile, the amount of imports increased slightly to around 9-point-5 billion dollars,... bringing the trade surplus to around 5-point-7 billion.
To boost falling exports, the South Korean government has been venturing into new semiconductor areas... such as the non-memory field.
Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.