South Korea’s chip exports have climbed more than 5 percent this year despite a tumble in prices of key products, data showed Nov. 4.

The country’s semiconductor exports totaled 29,834 tons for the year up to Oct. 25, up 5.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to data from the Industry Ministry and the Korea International Trade Association.

In particular, the volume has been rising at a double-digit rate since July. In the first 25 days of October alone, the amount jumped 16 percent on-month to 2,557 tons.

Korea’s chip production has also gained in the 7 percent range this year in tandem with growing overseas shipments.

According to separate data by Statistics Korea, semiconductor output increased 7.9 percent on-year in the first quarter of this year, 7.3 percent in the second quarter and 8.3 percent in the third quarter.

Despite the volume increase, the value of Korea’s chip exports tumbled 26.3 percent on-year to US$78.97 billion in the first 10 months of the year due to a nosedive in prices of DRAM and NAND chips, the flagship products of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

Yet the figure was a tad higher than the $78.69 billion for the same period in 2017 and well above the $62.23 billion for all of 2016.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)