What this is
Korean trade data, taken from the source
Dotori Economy collects Korean customs, central-bank and market records every morning and publishes them with its own analysis. The English edition concentrates on what is hardest to find elsewhere: monthly semiconductor trade broken out by destination, straight from Korea Customs Service records, free to read and free to cite.
Open the Export Tracker $32.72bn in July 2026Free illustrations, attribution only
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Why the destination column misleads
Customs statistics record where a shipment last cleared, not where the goods are used. In Korean chip trade that distinction is large enough to change conclusions: one major destination buys back 0.8 per cent of what it receives, another 85.1 per cent. The tracker carries that ratio alongside the headline figures so the difference is visible before it is argued about.
Latest analysis
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Korean chip equipment imports plateaued in March. Exports did not.
Korea imported $2.54bn of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in July 2026, up 55.4 per cent on the year but down 13.3 per cent from the March peak. Chip exports rose 31.4 per cent over those same five months, and equipment fell to 7.8 per cent of export value from 13.3 per cent.
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Three signals for the Korean memory cycle, and one that does not work
Export unit value is still setting records at $19,479 per kilogram, equipment imports have been flat since March, and share prices turn out to carry no memory-specific information at all this summer. Two usable signals point in different directions, which is what the middle of a cycle looks like.
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Record exports, falling shares: 94 per cent of it was the market
SK Hynix fell 39.5 per cent from its July peak to its 30 July trough while Korean chip exports were setting records. Regressing daily returns on the KOSPI explains 93.9 per cent of the variance, so the summer was a market event that memory shares amplified rather than a semiconductor event.
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Where Korean chips go: Greater China took 54 per cent as Taiwan stood still
Of $32.72bn in Korean integrated-circuit exports in July 2026, China took $13.42bn and Hong Kong $4.37bn, together 54.4 per cent against 41.4 per cent a year earlier. Taiwan fell from 27.9 per cent to 11.9 per cent without its shipments ever declining.
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Take out semiconductors and Korea runs a deficit with China
Korea recorded a $5.38bn trade surplus with China in July 2026. Integrated circuits alone accounted for $9.87bn of it, which leaves every other product line combined at a deficit of $4.50bn — a figure that has barely moved in three months.
Standards
Every figure published here comes from a named statistical source with the reference month attached, and the series behind each article are listed at its foot. Where this publication makes a causal claim from its own numbers, it also publishes the test that could have refuted it. A fuller account is on the about page.