Seoul, February 14: Exports by South Korea's 10 largest companies accounted for nearly 40% of all outbound shipments last year, reaching a record high, largely driven by strong semiconductor sales, according to government data released on Saturday.
In 2025, outbound shipments by the top 10 exporters accounted for 39% of the country's total exports, up 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics, reports Yonhap news agency.
"The concentration level is the highest on record, with increased semiconductor shipments having the largest impact," said Jung Kyu-seong, a ministry official.
Outbound shipments from the country's two major chipmakers – Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. – helped drive overall export growth amid the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
The top 100 companies accounted for 67.1% of exports in 2025, up 0.4 percentage point from the previous year, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, exports of information and communication technology (ICT) products jumped 78% in January compared to a year earlier, driven by global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure projects, according to data released on Thursday.
Outbound shipments of ICT products reached $29 billion, compared with $16.2 billion tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT. This marks the highest export volume for any January.
Imports increased by 20% to $14 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $14.9 billion. The ministry attributed the sharp growth to the rapidly expanding global AI industry, which led to stronger demand for high-performance ICT products.
Exports of semiconductor products more than doubled on-year in January to $20.5 billion, driven by higher global memory prices and steady demand for premium products, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips.
Outbound shipments of displays gained 19% over the period to $1.5 billion, led by organic light-emitting diode (OLED) products, according to the data.
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