South Korea's semiconductor-led export surge extended into August at a stronger-than-expected pace, showing few signs that artificial-intelligence-driven demand for chips is cooling.
Asia's fourth-largest economy continues to benefit from the AI boom as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world's two largest memory-chip makers, expect supply to remain tight amid strong demand for AI infrastructure.
Exports rose 68.7% from a year earlier to $98.26 billion, following a revised 63.0% gain in July, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.
That beat the median forecast for 62.0% growth in a Wall Street Journal survey of 13 economists.
Imports rose 22.5% to $63.51 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $34.75 billion in August--wider than a revised $30.39 billion surplus in July.
Semiconductors, which account for more than a third of South Korea's exports by value this year, continued to drive the gains.
Chip exports tripled from a year earlier to a record $46.65 billion in August, after reaching $41 billion in July and $45 billion in June, the ministry said.
SK Hynix, a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia, expects AI-driven demand to keep the memory market undersupplied through the end of the decade, Chief Executive Kwak Noh-jung said last week after the company broke ground on a $4 billion AI-chip plant in Indiana.
Kwak noted that the semiconductor shortage could persist through the end of 2030, two years longer than Samsung Electronics projected in July.
Both Samsung and SK Hynix reported record earnings and revenue for the June quarter and are widely expected to extend that streak through the end of the year.
Tuesday's trade data underscored the economy's uneven, "K-shaped" export growth, with technology industries booming while some non-tech sectors lag.
Shipments of computers jumped fivefold from a year earlier in August, while smartphone exports rose 21%.
Conversely, exports of vehicles and ships declined 30% and 10%, respectively, in August from a year earlier, weighed down by labor strikes in the automotive sector and delays in vessel deliveries.
By destination, exports to the U.S. jumped 89% in August from a year earlier, and shipments to China more than doubled. However, exports to the Middle East dropped 15%.