SEOUL, June 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export of information and communications technology (ICT) products kept falling for seven straight months to May on weak global demand for three key items, namely semiconductor, display panel and mobile phone, a government report showed Friday.
The ICT export tumbled 22.6 percent over the year to 14.31 billion U.S. dollars in May, continuing to decline since November last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
Semiconductor shipment plunged 30 percent to 7.66 billion dollars in the month on lower memory chip price and soft demand for system chips.
Display panel export dropped 21.5 percent to 1.63 billion dollars on stiffer competition for the liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, while mobile phone shipment retreated 33.9 percent to 930 million dollars.
Export for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel rose 3.7 percent to 620 million dollars, and secondary battery shipment grew 5.2 percent to 620 million dollars.
The ICT export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, tumbled 31.5 percent to 7.12 billion dollars in the cited period, with the figure to the European Union (EU) skidding 16 percent to 850 million dollars.
Shipment to the United States diminished 15.5 percent to 1.48 billion dollars, but those to Vietnam and Japan grew 1.6 percent and 3.5 percent each last month.
The ICT import amounted to 9.68 billion dollars in the month, sending the trade surplus in the sector to 4.63 billion dollars.
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