South Korea's ICT exports post second-largest on demand for chips

South Korea's exports in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry posted the second-largest in the country's history last month due to demand for locally-made semiconductors, a government report showed Thursday.
Exports in the ICT sector reached 16.07 billion U.S. dollars in October, logging the second-largest monthly figure except for the 16.23 billion-dollar export tallied in October 2013, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
Demand for chips led the October exports, with chip shipments reaching an all-time high of 5.95 billion dollars in October, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier. Exports of computers and peripherals, including monitors and printers, increased 7.3 percent last month.
The number of mobile phone shipments declined last month, but the export value continued to grow from 2.08 billion dollars in August to 2.42 billion dollars in October due to demand for high- end products such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note4 and LG Electronics' G3.
The ICT product exports to the United States surged 13.5 percent due to a recovery in the world's No.1 economy, and those to China, South Korea's largest trading partner, hit an all-time high of 8.22 billion dollars last month.
ICT product imports increased 1.7 percent from a year earlier to 7.89 billion dollars in October due to demand for Apple's newly- launched iPhone 6 smartphone. Handset imports along soared 64.4 percent last month.
Trade surplus in the ICT sector was 8.17 billion dollars in October, topping a 7.5 billion-dollar surplus for all industries.