According to the import and export statistics of the Korea International Trade Association, the cumulative export value of South Korea's storage semiconductors from January to September this year was 51.91125 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 75.6%. At the beginning of the year, the growth rate was about 90%, but later it fell to around 70%. During the same period, exports to China increased by 40.1%, reaching 19.65228 billion US dollars.
From January to September this year, the share of Chinese Mainland in South Korea's memory export regions dropped to 37.9%, which remained at 40% until May this year, fell to 39% in June, and has continued to decline since then. The proportions for 2022 and 2023 are 51.4% and 44.7%, respectively.
This is the first time in 12 years that the share of Chinese Mainland in the export of storage semiconductor, the largest export project of South Korea, has fallen below 40%. The last time it was in the 30% range was during the semiconductor economic recession in 2012, at 37.7%.
Correspondingly, the export share of South Korean storage semiconductors to Taiwan, China is growing rapidly, rising to 16% as of September this year, and has never exceeded 10% in the past 10 years. From January to September this year, the export volume of storage semiconductors to Taiwan, China was US $8.5 billion, up 316% from US $3 billion in the same period last year.
This is mainly due to a significant increase in the number of HBMs sent by SK Hynix to TSMC. TSMC receives HBM supply from South Korea, manufactures AI accelerators for NVIDIA, and then sends them to NVIDIA.