[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Amid predictions that the recovery of the global semiconductor industry will be delayed, South Korea's memory semiconductor exports will rebound from the second half of this year, a report showed.

The Korea International Trade Association held a "press conference on trade issues" at the Trade Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 28th and said that exports of memory semiconductors, which have been steadily decreasing this year, will increase from October (26.9% compared to the same period last year). Since then, exports are expected to surge at the end of the year, rising 85.5 percent in November and 70.4 percent in December. The figure is based on data submitted by the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association to the Korea International Trade Association.

"The demand for ICT (information and communication technology) is expected to recover from the first half of next year, and semiconductors will emerge as a leading demand due to a recovery in ICT demand. In addition, the increase in demand for AI-related HBM (high-bandwidth memory) for semiconductors is expected to lead to a global recovery from the fourth quarter of this year," said Chung Man-ki, vice chairman of the Korea International Trade Association.

Vice Chairman Chung said, "There are predictions that semiconductor recovery will be delayed than expected, such as recent reports of Taiwan TSMC's increase in inventory, but at least the recovery of memory exports will be faster." According to the export outlook of the Semiconductor Industry Association, the outlook for system semiconductor exports is still on the decline after October (▶-12.6% ▶-8.9% ▶-5.2%). However, the overall semiconductor industry, which combines both memory and system semiconductors, is expected to increase 3% in October and increase 29.9% in November and 25.8% in December.

Meanwhile, according to the Korea International Trade Association, exports amounted to 385.3 billion dollars (about 510.5225 trillion won) from January to August 20 this year, down 13.2% from a year earlier. Imports fell 12 percent to $413.7 billion (about 548.1525 trillion won), with the trade balance posting a deficit of $28.4 billion (about 37.63 trillion won) during the period. In particular, the decline in exports of the five major IT items, including semiconductors, computers, displays, wireless communication devices, and home appliances, accounted for 76.9% of the total export decline in the first half.

 

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