In the US-China semiconductor war, Korea's semiconductor exports to China have surged, and the dollar payments are stiff.
The surge in semiconductor exports from South Korea, which depended on China's strategy to destroy the semiconductor inventory cycle due to tightening sanctions on Huawei, initiated by the Trump administration, seems to be a boost before China's inventory is secured.
The share of currencies in Korea's exports was in the order of the US dollar (83.6%), the euro (6.2%), the yen (2.9%), the won (2.5%), and the renminbi (2.0%), and the share of the US dollar increased 0.1 percentage point from the previous year.
The Bank of Korea announced on the 22nd that the increase in the proportion of exports in the US dollar is the result of the increase in exports of semiconductors and information and communication devices by 5.4% and 12.9%, respectively, from the previous year.
China's semiconductor imports in March were $35.9 billion (40 trillion won), and in the first quarter, it was 33.6 billion dollars, an increase of 33.6% and 30% compared to the previous year, respectively, citing the Chinese media saying that last year's semiconductor imports increased by 15%. Reported on the 22nd.
Korea's semiconductor exports increased 38.2% year-on-year on April 20, and passenger cars increased 54.9%.
Semiconductor imports increased by 17.3%.
Exports were 35.8% to China, 39.4% to the US, 63.8% to Vietnam, and 63% to the European Union (EU). The increase in exports to Europe and the United States was led by passenger cars.
In the first quarter of the resurgence of semiconductors, the US Intel's sales in the first quarter were $19.7 billion, down 1% from the same period last year, resulting in a sharp drop of 41% ($3.4 billion) of net profit.
Although Intel increased its semiconductor investment, sales of personal computer chips alone increased by 8%, while sales in the highly profitable data center and cloud services sectors plunged 20% and 29%, respectively.
Huawei Chairman Xu Zujun, the No. 1 Trump sanction target, commented on Huawei's sanctions, "Huawei's purchase amount from Japan in 2019 decreased by 20% to $10 billion in 2019 or $8 billion in 2020, and it has purchased 10 to 20 billion dollars annually from US companies. It is buying a significant amount of silver from other suppliers,” it revealed to the Chinese media, suggesting an increase in Korean semiconductor imports.
In the ‘evaluation’ of the Bank of Korea’s semiconductor exports, the proportion of semiconductors increased to 17.9% in 2019, an increase of 8.9%p compared to 2009, but decreased to 3.4% for mobile phones and 5.6% for displays (4.8%P and 5.8%P respectively).
In the Korean economy, the share of the IT industry increased by 8.3%p from 18.6% in 2009 to 26.9% in 2019 due to the concentration of semiconductor exports to China. It got bigger and hardened by the rise in unemployment.
On the other hand, Korean individual investors (Seohak ant) are rushing to the semiconductor index fund of the New York Stock Market in the US, and by April 23rd, they bought the'Direction Semiconductor 3X' ETF worth $36.13 million (4052 billion won) and Tesla (900 million won). It ranked second in overseas stock purchases after $17.5 million).
The reason for the rapid increase of more than five times from $73.9 million in April last year, when private investments were rushing in the stock market due to the initial V rebound in the early coronavirus, seems to be the bait for the rise of the semiconductor economy and the preference for high-risk, high-yield, three-fold leverage of Korean ants and the expansion of semiconductor investment by Intel.
In addition, the Democratic Party launched the Special Committee on Semiconductor Technology on the 21st and announced that it would issue a special law to support the semiconductor industry by August in order to fully support the semiconductor industry through financial support.