Last year's exports were "the best ever"...Semiconductors and bio shined.

[Anchor]
Despite a series of bad news at the end of last year, exports set a new record last year.

Amid stable oil prices, major export items such as semiconductors, bio, and K-beauty were strong.

Reporter Hwang Hye-kyung reports.

[Reporter]
It was 2024, when semiconductors, bio, and K-food shone.

First, semiconductors saw exports jump 43.9% year-on-year in the fourth quarter as exports of high-value items such as high-bandwidth memory rose despite a fall in general-purpose memory prices.

Bio and K-food also did well.

Exports, led by biosimilar drugs, rose 13%, and K-food, which has become sensationally popular worldwide, also grew 7.6%.

Petrochemicals, which had to tighten their belts, also bolstered by expanded export volumes, and ships that won orders in 2021 were shipped in earnest last year, driving the trade surplus.

However, steel, which faced sluggish construction and bad global oversupply, struggled (**today's POSCO screen)
Automobiles, which suffered production disruptions due to the
strike and bad weather, remained flat.

The final report card is $683.8 billion!

It broke the record in 2022 and achieved the highest export performance ever.

The trade balance also increased significantly from the previous year, reaching a surplus of $51.8 billion, the highest in six years.

[Trade Policy Officer, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy: The simultaneous achievement of the largest-ever export performance and trade surplus shows that exports are supporting the Korean economy under difficult internal and external conditions, and is expected to contribute greatly to maintaining external credibility.]

By region, exports to Latin America were the most noticeable, up 17.8% year-on-year, exports to the Middle East were positive for the fourth consecutive year, and exports to India were second all-time.

China and the U.S., the biggest export markets, also rose 6.6% and 10.5%, respectively, with U.S. exports in particular breaking their biggest performance for the seventh year in a row.

Korean companies with the best report cards even in difficult conditions such as global high prices, high exchange rates, war and Middle East crisis.

There are mixed concerns about whether we can do well this year, when external uncertainties have increased.

I'm YTN Hwang Hye-kyung.