South korea: South Korea's exports increased 8.4 percent from a year earlier in November to over US$61 billion, marking the sixth consecutive month of increase on the back of strong demand for semiconductors. Outbound shipments came to $61.04 billion last month, the highest for any November, according to the data compiled by the South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.
According to Qatar News Agency, imports gained 1.2 percent on-year to $51.3 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $9.73 billion. Accumulated exports in the January-November period reached $640.2 billion, a record high for the cited period.
Semiconductor exports soared 38.6 percent on-year to an all-time monthly high of $17.26 billion last month, led by a continued rise in memory chip prices sparked by strong demand for high-value products for data centers. Auto exports climbed 13.7 percent to $6.41 billion on the strong performance of internal combustion vehicles and hybrid cars.
Shipments of wireless communication devices added 1.6 percent to $1.73 billion, and shipments of secondary batteries went up 2.2 percent to $670 million. Exports of electrical equipment, agro-fisheries products and cosmetics expanded 5.2 percent, 3.3 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, to $1.27 billion, $1.04 billion and $950 million.
But exports of petroleum products dipped 10.3 percent to $3.28 billion, while exports of petrochemical products dropped 14.1 percent to $3.06 billion amid a global oversupply.