S. Korea ranks No. 1 in export of memory chips, SSDs, face masks, 78 other items: report
South Korea had 81 products that led global exports in 2024, including memory chips and face masks, a report showed Tuesday.
In this photo, containers are stacked at a port in Pyeongtaek on March 12. Photo by Yonhap
South Korea had 81 products that led global exports in 2024, including memory chips, solid state drives (SSDs) and face masks, a report showed Tuesday.
The report published by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) showed that the value of 81 Korea-produced items accounted for the largest share of global export value in their respective categories.
China was at the top with 2,087 items with the largest export market share, followed by Germany at 520 items, the United States at 505, Italy at 199 and India at 156.
South Korea had 19 items ranked between second to 10th in terms of export market share, KITA said, noting the country is likely to increase its number of globally leading products in the future.
The country’s top selling items included memory chips, electrical transformers, SSDs, lead-acid starter batteries for automobiles, rubber for automotive components and sheet masks.
Notably, Korea reclaimed the top spot for memory chips from China for the first time in five years in 2024, thanks to strong demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) and other advanced products made by Korean companies, KITA said.
In the tanker segment, Korea lost the top spot to China on the latter’s strategy of securing large volumes of low-value vessels but is expected to retake the position in 2025 on the back of the recent boom in Seoul’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship orders, it added.
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