Last month, the export value in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector reached $16.71 billion, an increase of 1.2% compared to the same month last year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 16th. The import value of ICT was $10.9 billion, an increase of 5.6%.
Last month, the ICT export value recorded the second highest performance for February in history. A Ministry official noted, "Exports decreased by 0.4% in January, but rebounded," adding that this indicates a recovery trend in ICT exports.
In February, ICT exports were driven by mobile phones (up 33.3%), computers and peripherals (up 26.9%), and communication equipment (up 74.1%). In contrast, exports of semiconductors, a key export item, fell by 3%. Displays also saw a decrease of 5.1%.
Despite the good performance of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DDR5 among high-value memory semiconductors, exports decreased slightly due to falling prices of general-purpose memory semiconductors (including NAND) and production cuts caused by the transition in NAND flash processing. Exports of displays declined due to oversupply of panels from China and sluggish demand for electronics.
Conversely, mobile phone exports increased as part exports to overseas production bases in China, Vietnam, and India rose. Exports of computers and peripherals grew due to increased demand for storage devices following expanded server and data center investments in the United States and the European Union (EU). Exports of communication equipment also increased thanks to expanded supply of navigation aids to India.
Looking at the export trends by region, exports to Vietnam (up 15.6%), the United States (up 11.5%), Taiwan (up 124.3%), and India (up 54.9%) increased. In contrast, exports to China (including Hong Kong, down 19.6%), the European Union (down 7.6%), and Japan (down 5.7%) decreased.
In particular, the Ministry explained that semiconductor exports to China fell significantly (down 31.8%) compared to the same month last year due to the impact of U.S. export restrictions on HBM.