South Korea’s record exports in September 2026 reached $120.9 billion, up 83.5 percent from a year earlier, driven by an AI-fuelled surge in chip shipments, Al Jazeera reports. The previous monthly record was $102.25 billion, set in June.
Key points
- Chips drive the jump
- The year so far
- Risks the government names
- Reading the numbers
- South Korea exports: quick answers
Chips drive the jump
Chip shipments hit $60.3 billion in September, an increase of more than 260 percent, and made up nearly half of all exports. Al Jazeera notes that SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics control about 80 percent of the global high-bandwidth memory market and 60 percent of DRAM.
The year so far
Exports for January to September totalled $814.5 billion, against $709.7 billion for all of 2025. The trade surplus for the period was $49.85 billion. Nominal GDP grew 26.4 percent year on year in April to June, and the forecast for 2026 real growth is 3 percent, the strongest since 2017 outside the pandemic years, per the same report. The Kospi has risen nearly 60 percent this year.
Risks the government names
Trade Minister Kim Jeong-kwan called the result “a valuable achievement” but said global protectionism and Middle East tensions remain major variables. For the demand side, see our report on the Nvidia market value surge.
Reading the numbers
The figures come from government-reported trade data via Al Jazeera, and are concentrated in one sector. More market context is in our pieces on European stocks and bond yields and the US jobs report; broader coverage is in the Al Jazeera economy section.
South Korea exports: quick answers
How big were South Korea’s September exports?
$120.9 billion, up 83.5 percent year on year, per Al Jazeera.
What drove the record?
Chip shipments of $60.3 billion, nearly half of all exports.
What was the previous record?
$102.25 billion in June 2026.
What risks did the trade minister cite?
Global protectionism and tensions in the Middle East.
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