Despite Fewer Working Days, October Exports Rose 3.6% Year-on-Year

[Financial News] Despite an extended Chuseok holiday in October, export volume increased by 3.6% compared to the same month last year, marking the fifth consecutive month of growth. Improved performance in key items, especially semiconductors and ships, led to the highest October export value on record. However, exports to the United States of America (USA) dropped by 16.2% year-on-year, affected by tariffs on automobiles, machinery, and steel.
According to the 'October 2025 Export and Import Trends' released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) on the 1st, exports in October reached $59.57 billion, up 3.6% from the same month last year, while imports fell 1.5% to $53.52 billion. As a result, the trade surplus stood at $6.06 billion.
This strong performance was achieved despite the number of working days decreasing from 22 last year to 20 this year. When adjusted for working days, average daily exports reached $2.98 billion, a 14% increase year-on-year and the highest monthly figure ever recorded.
The main driver of overall export growth was semiconductors. Among the 15 major export items, ships, petroleum products, and Solid-state drive (SSD) also saw increased exports, with four items posting gains.
Semiconductors, the largest export item, posted a record October performance of $15.73 billion (up 25.4%), driven by a rebound in Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) fixed prices and continued strong sales of high-value memory such as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). Specifically, memory semiconductor exports surged 48% year-on-year last month to $10.9 billion, marking the eighth consecutive month of growth.
Ship exports reached $4.69 billion (up 131.2%), including $2.47 billion from Offshore Plant, as deliveries of orders placed at high prices in 2022 and 2023 began in earnest. This is the highest export figure in 99 months since July 2017 ($6.09 billion), and ship exports have now increased for eight consecutive months.
Exports of petroleum products rose 12.7% year-on-year to $3.83 billion, as export volumes increased despite stable international product prices. Petroleum product exports have now grown for two consecutive months.
However, due to the Chuseok holiday in October, exports of most of the 15 major items and other products declined. In particular, exports of automobiles, Automotive Parts, steel, General Machinery, and home appliances—which are heavily affected by USA tariffs—experienced relatively sharp declines.
Automobile exports, for example, fell 10.5% to $5.55 billion. The decrease was mainly due to reduced shipments to the USA, the largest export market, following the imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration. The shorter number of working days during the Chuseok holiday also contributed to the decline, ending a five-month streak of positive growth.
Steel exports dropped 21.5% year-on-year to $2.25 billion, affected by high tariffs in the USA, strengthened trade barriers in major countries, and falling export prices due to global oversupply.
Among the nine major export regions, only Latin America (+99.0%) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (+34.4%) recorded growth. In contrast, exports to the USA fell 16.2% to $8.71 billion. All major items, including automobiles, steel, and machinery, underperformed, making the USA the only region among the top nine to post a double-digit decline.

aber@fnnews.com Park Ji-young Reporter