S.Korea's ICT exports reduce 7.5 pct in May on less working days

South Korea's information and telecommunications technology (ICT) exports reduced last month due to less working days, but the industry kept its surplus trend, contributing much to trade surplus in the overall industry, a government report showed Tuesday.

The ICT exports declined 7.5 percent from a year earlier to 14 billion U.S. dollars in May after rising 4.5 percent in the prior month, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy ( MOTIE).

The reduction was mainly attributed to less business days caused by the so-called golden week from the May 1 Labor day to May 6 Buddha's Birthday.

The daily average exports in the ICT industry reached 651 million dollars in May, almost the same as 658 million dollars a year ago.

For the first five months of 2014, the ICT exports reached 69.9 billion dollars, the largest over a five-month period in the country's history.

Trade surplus in the sector came to 7.25 billion dollars in May, contributing to the surplus of 5.35 billion dollars for the overall industry.

By export item, handset exports tumbled 12.9 percent from a year earlier to 2.17 billion dollars in May due to the sluggish growth in the global smarpthone market and expanded production in overseas factories for cost cutting.

The country's smartphone exports topped 1 billion dollars for five straight months in May, but the exports sank 27.9 percent in May from a year before.

Memory chip exports surged 21.6 percent on year to 2.71 billion dollars in May due to higher product prices, but shipments of system chips such as mobile application processor (AP) plunged 20. 7 percent to 1.66 billion dollars due to weaker demand for smartphones.

Display panel exports fell 7.6 percent from a year earlier to 2. 31 billion dollars in May amid the faltering demand from China and the sluggish global TV market. Digital TV exports slid 3.2 percent in May from a year earlier.