Photo courtesy of Yonhap News

 

[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] South Korea’s reliance on China for semiconductor exports has declined markedly as AI-driven demand for advanced memory chips accelerates.

According to data from the Korea International Trade Association, South Korea’s global memory semiconductor exports totaled $94.61 billion last year. Of that amount, exports to China reached $30.99 billion, accounting for 32.7% of the total. This represents a sharp drop from the period when China once absorbed nearly 70% of Korea’s semiconductor exports.

China’s share of Korean memory exports hovered around 50% for five years after 2018 but fell into the 30% range in 2024.

By contrast, exports to Taiwan surged. Shipments of memory semiconductors to Taiwan totaled $27.08 billion last year, up 87.2% from $14.46 billion a year earlier. Taiwan’s share of total memory exports climbed to 28.6%, narrowing the gap with China, the largest export destination.

The shift highlights the growing prominence of AI memory in Korea’s export mix. Expanded sales of HBM by SK hynix to NVIDIA have played a key role. Although the end customer is based in the United States, HBM exports are statistically recorded as shipments to Taiwan, where chips undergo advanced packaging and back-end processes at TSMC before final delivery.

Taiwan accounted for only around 6% of Korea’s memory exports in 2020, but that share rose to 14.5% in 2024 and nearly 29% last year. Export value to Taiwan surged from about $3 billion in 2023 to $14.46 billion in 2024 and $27.08 billion last year.

As a result, the ranking of export destinations has shifted from China and Hong Kong occupying the top two positions to China first and Taiwan second.

Analysts say the diversification away from China toward Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam signals a structural transformation in Korea’s memory export map. The easing of China concentration and broader geographic diversification are expected to support the long-term stability of Korea’s semiconductor industry.

 

 

 

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