South Korea's ICT trade balance posted a $113.04 billion surplus in 2025. Annual exports rose 12.4 percent from a year earlier to $264.29 billion. Imports increased 5.8 percent to $151.25 billion.

On Jan. 14, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced the 2025 annual ICT export and import trends. ICT exports last year hit a record high as demand for semiconductors and SSDs surged amid expanded construction of AI data centres worldwide.

By major product, annual ICT exports rose for semiconductors, up 22.1 percent, computers and peripherals, up 3.8 percent, and communications equipment, up 3.9 percent. Exports fell for displays, down 9.5 percent, and mobile phones, down 0.5 percent.

Semiconductors posted the strongest results on record as demand for high value-added memory expanded and prices for general-purpose semiconductors such as DRAM kept rising. Exports of computers and peripherals increased on strong SSD demand from China, the Netherlands and Taiwan. Communications equipment rebounded for the first time in 3 years, driven by a double-digit rise in exports to the United States and solid demand from India and Mexico.

Display exports fell despite broader adoption of OLED in IT devices, due to lower unit prices and weak downstream demand for LCDs. Mobile phone exports declined as weak demand for parts offset a recovery in global smartphone demand.

By destination, exports rose to Taiwan, up 64.8 percent, Vietnam, up 14.5 percent, India, up 11.3 percent, the European Union, up 10.2 percent, the United States, up 9.8 percent, and Japan, up 5.5 percent. Exports to China including Hong Kong fell 0.9 percent.

Annual ICT imports rose for a second consecutive year, up 5.8 percent. Semiconductors, the largest import item, rose 5.0 percent to $76.21 billion and accounted for a majority of total imports for a second year, at 50.4 percent, on increased volumes for back-end processes such as servers and packaging. Imports of GPUs jumped to $440 million, up 309.0 percent, and mid- to large-sized computers rose to $3.80 billion, up 39.7 percent, as domestic investment in AI infrastructure expanded.

ICT exports in December rose 32.4 percent from a year earlier to $30.0 billion. They extended gains for 11 consecutive months from February of the same year. Semiconductor and computer and peripheral exports, as well as overall ICT exports, posted the strongest results on record. It was the first time monthly exports exceeded $30.0 billion.

By item, exports rose for semiconductors, up 43.2 percent to $20.77 billion, computers and peripherals, up 35.9 percent to $2.20 billion, mobile phones, up 25.2 percent to $1.40 billion, and communications equipment, up 19.0 percent to $240 million. Display exports fell 2.2 percent to $1.66 billion.

By destination, exports rose to the United States, up 22.9 percent, Taiwan, up 26.4 percent, China including Hong Kong, up 28.4 percent, Vietnam, up 43.5 percent, India, up 39.9 percent, and the European Union, up 45.5 percent. Exports to Japan fell 11.6 percent.

ICT imports in the same month rose 12.1 percent from a year earlier to $14.93 billion. The trade balance therefore posted a $15.07 billion surplus.