According to the data released by the South Korean Customs Office recently, the total export volume of South Korea in the first ten days of this month was 15.8 billion US dollars, down 16.2% year on year, mainly due to the weakness of chip exports. Under the influence of multiple factors, the export value of Korean chips during this period was 2.26 billion US dollars, down 41.2% year on year. Under the unwarranted sanctions of the United States, China is rapidly reducing its dependence on chips from South Korea, so South Korea’s exports to China, its largest trading partner, fell by 35.3%.
The sluggish sales of Korean chips also stems from the global oversupply of chips. Since the second half of 2022, the world chip industry has officially entered a downward cycle. In addition, although Samsung and SK Hynix of South Korea play an important role in the field of memory chips, the Chinese chips of Micron of the United States and Cheung Kong Storage of China are on the rise and continue to occupy the market share of Korean chips.
At the same time, in March 2022, the US government proposed to establish a four party alliance of chips with South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, China Province of China to contain China’s chip industry, which also stimulated China to reduce its dependence on South Korean chips. In 2022, the export of Korean chips to China will decrease by 31.4%.
In January of this year, the inventory rate of Korean chips reached 265.7%, the highest in 26 years. In February, the export value of Korean semiconductors was 5.96 billion US dollars, down 42.5% year on year. Between October and December last year, SK Hynix of South Korea lost 1.4 billion US dollars (about 9.64 billion yuan), and Samsung’s chip business lost 3 trillion won (about 15.8 billion yuan) in the first two months.
Post time: Mar-14-2023