Overview
- South Korea's exports rose 60.4% year-on-year in the June 1–20 period, reaching about $62 billion and marking the highest 20-day total on record.
- Semiconductors were the main driver with chip shipments jumping to $25.5 billion and making up roughly 41% of exports in that period.
- Imports climbed 23.2% to $44.5 billion, producing a trade surplus of about $17 billion as shipments to China and the United States rose sharply.
- Market reports show heavy GPU flows into Korea, including more than 250,000 GPUs routed in June, which points to expanding domestic and regional AI compute capacity.
- Korean retail investors have shifted money from crypto into AI-focused chip stocks, reducing crypto trading volumes and concentrating the economy's exposure on the semiconductor cycle.