Seoul, December 01 (QNA) - South Korea's exports increased 8.4 percent from a year earlier in November to over US$61 billion, marking the sixth consecutive month of increase on the back of strong demand for semiconductors.

Outbound shipments came to $61.04 billion last month, the highest for any November, according to the data compiled by the South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.
Imports gained 1.2 percent on-year to $51.3 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $9.73 billion, according to South Korea's News Agency (Yonhap).

Accumulated exports in the January-November period reached $640.2 billion, a record high for the cited period.

Semiconductor exports soared 38.6 percent on-year to an all-time monthly high of $17.26 billion last month, led by a continued rise in memory chip prices sparked by strong demand for high-value products for data centers.

Auto exports climbed 13.7 percent to $6.41 billion on the strong performance of internal combustion vehicles and hybrid cars.

Shipments of wireless communication devices added 1.6 percent to $1.73 billion, and shipments of secondary batteries went up 2.2 percent to $670 million.

Exports of electrical equipment, agro-fisheries products and cosmetics expanded 5.2 percent, 3.3 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, to $1.27 billion, $1.04 billion and $950 million. 

But exports of petroleum products dipped 10.3 percent to $3.28 billion, while exports of petrochemical products dropped 14.1 percent to $3.06 billion amid a global oversupply. (QNA)