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S. Korea's February IT exports hits record on demand for chips, handsets
SEOUL, Mar 06, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
South Korea's information technology
(IT) exports posted the highest value in any February last month
as demand for chips and handsets moderated negative affect of less
business days, a government report showed Thursday.
Exports in the IT industry rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier
to 11.85 billion U.S. dollars in February, increasing for six
straight months, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
The figure was the largest in any February, offsetting negative
affect from a fall in working days that led to an 8.6 percent
decline in exports of the overall industry. The Lunar New Year's
holiday moved to February this year from January last year,
reducing this year's business days by 2.5 days.
Demand for big-ticket items led the record February figure.
High-value products such as system chips, memory chips for mobile
phones, smartphones and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels
boosted the value of IT exports.
For the first two months of this year, the IT exports jumped 9
percent compared to the same period of last year, in contrast to a
0.6 percent rise for the overall industry.
By item, mobile phone exports increased 11.8 percent last
month. Shipments of handset parts kept the double-digit growth for
five months in a row, relieving the fall in smartphones that
stemmed from growing production in overseas plants.
Chip shipments rose for five straight months on the back of
strong demand for system chips such as application processor (AP)
for mobile phones and multimedia processor. Display panel exports
continued to grow over the past eight months amid the launch of
new TV models.
Imports in the IT sector tumbled 10.4 percent in February from
a year earlier due to less business days, sending the trade
surplus in the industry to 6.36 billion U.S. dollars last month.
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