As semiconductor exports see the biggest boom on record, the government has refined the export statistics classification for semiconductors. Memory and system semiconductors, which had been grouped together under "integrated circuits," will be tallied separately to make export trends more intuitive. Five categories including electrical machinery, whose exports have surged on the back of expanded global power grid investment, have also been newly added to the list of main export items.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said on the 6th that it revised the MTI code standard for the first time in six years. The MTI code is an export-import product classification system established in 1988 by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources and the Korea International Trade Association to supplement the limitations of the HS code for tariff imposition (about 10,000 items), which is difficult to use for statistical analysis.
With this overhaul, five items—electrical machinery, nonferrous metals, agri-fishery products, cosmetics, and household goods—are added to the existing 15 main export categories. Rather than simply selecting items with strong exports, the government chose items with a large export share and high growth potential that require continued policy management.
Electrical machinery, which includes transformers and electric cables, rose to the ranks of key items as exports expanded with greater global power grid investment, reaching $16.68 billion (+8.2%) last year and accounting for 2.4% of total exports. For consumer goods such as cosmetics and agri-fishery products, exports continue to grow as the Korean Wave boosts the premium image of Korean-made products, leading the government to decide to track their trends separately.
Detailed categories were also adjusted. In particular, for semiconductors, which led the overall export boom with $78.5 billion (up 139%) in the first quarter of this year, memory and system semiconductors that had been mixed in a single category will be separated, and results for DRAM and NAND will be available separately. For automobiles, categories will be divided by vehicle type and then tallied separately for internal combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles, as well as new and used cars.
An official at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) said, "By adding items that serve as policy barometers and refining the classifications, not only investors and corporate practitioners but also the general public will be able to check Korea's export trends much more easily on the trade association's website." The revisions will be applied retroactively to past data since 2022 and will be fully reflected in the monthly export-import trend release starting on the 1st of next month.