Seoul, Aug. 1 (BNA): South Korea’s exports rose by 5.9% year-on-year in July, supported by strong global demand for semiconductors, according to data released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Outbound shipments reached USD 60.8 billion, marking the highest value ever recorded for the month of July.

Imports also rose by 0.7% to USD 54.2 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of USD 6.61 billion.

Semiconductor exports surged by 31.6% year-on-year to USD 14.71 billion, their highest July figure on record, driven by rising memory chip prices and strong demand for high value products such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) and DDR5 chips.

Automobile exports increased by 8.8% to USD 5.83 billion, supported by strong performance in the European Union, Latin America, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including Russia.

Ship exports rose sharply by 107.6% year-on-year to USD 2.24 billion, marking the fifth consecutive monthly increase, fuelled by demand for high value vessels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

However, petroleum and petrochemical shipments fell by 6.3% and 10.1%, respectively, to USD 4.21 billion and USD 3.75 billion.

M.A.