Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1307 EAT on Thursday 1 October 2026
South Korea’s exports have reached a monthly record, driven by strong demand for chips used in artificial intelligence.
Exports rose 83.5 percent year-on-year to $120.9 billion in September, surpassing the previous record of $102.25 billion set in June, according to preliminary customs data released on Thursday.
Chip shipments accounted for nearly half of South Korea’s exports, rising more than 260 percent to $60.3 billion, according to the Korea Customs Service.
Total exports from January to September reached $814.5 billion, already exceeding the full-year record of $709.7 billion set in 2025.
The country recorded a trade surplus of $49.85 billion during the first nine months of the year.
“This is a valuable achievement that once again demonstrates the strength of our industries and companies,” South Korea’s Trade and Industry Minister Kim Jeong-kwan said in a statement.
He said the country expects to reach $1 trillion in annual exports, but warned that rising global protectionism and tensions in the Middle East could affect trade.
South Korea’s strong export performance comes amid a global shortage of memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems.
The country, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, is home to major semiconductor manufacturers, including SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.
According to Counterpoint Research, the two companies account for about 80 percent of the global high-bandwidth memory market and 60 percent of the dynamic random-access memory market.
South Korea’s Ministry of Finance and Economy forecasts real GDP growth of 3 percent in 2026, which would be the country’s strongest performance since 2017, excluding the unusual years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The AI boom has also boosted South Korea’s stock market, with the benchmark Kospi index rising nearly 60 percent this year.
-Aljazeera
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