Korea's semiconductors and displays account for 75% of trade surplus this year
반도체가 우리나라 무역흑자 절반 차지… 지난해보다 130% ↑ South Korea's IT firms have tightened their grip on the global semiconductor and displays market.... enjoying a massive surge in demand since the turn of the year. Their impressive gains working as the main driver for the country's trade account in recent months. Oh Soo-young reports. Korea's IT exports are once again,... the main driving force of the country's economy this year. According to industry data,... Korea's trade surplus in semiconductors and displays, amounted to 42-point-two billion U.S. dollars, from January to July this year. It accounted for more than three quarters... of the country's positive trade balance, during the same period. The surplus in semiconductors alone were tallied at 28-point-8 billion U.S. dollars,... jumping 130-percent on-year,... and exceeding the total from the whole of 2016. Memory chips took up the lion's share, with a surplus of 27-point-2 billion dollars. This comes as the "supercycle" of memory chips, characterised by high demand and soaring unit prices,... resulted in record profits, for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. With these companies now expanding into the non-memory sector,... the trade balance in system semiconductors also pulled itself out of the red,... from a deficit of 1-point-9 billion dollars last year, to a *surplus of 1-point-four billion dollars. High demand for OLED and LCD panels also boosted Korea's trade account,... with the surplus in displays seen at 13.4 billion dollars up to July, up ten percent on-year. LG Display is the world's number one panel producer,... accounting for 22 percent of global sales,... and Samsung Display ranks fifth,... holding a ten percent share of the market. While global demand for tech components are set to remain steady for the time being, experts say Korean companies may not see as big of a margin in the coming months. "It appears that the memory chip supercycle is almost at its peak,... so unit prices may begin to stabilize. While demand is likely to remain high,... other global players could seize a larger market share." Also, with growing competition in the panel industry,... especially with China's state-backed companies playing catch-up,... experts say Korea's chip and display companies must continue to make vast investments to develop new, cutting-edge technologies. Oh Soo-young, Arirang News. Visit ‘Arirang News’ Official Pages Facebook(NEWS): / newsarirang Homepage: http://www.arirang.com Facebook: / arirangtv Twitter: / arirangworld Instagram: / arirangworld
