South Korea's exports rose 13.7 percent on-year in the first 10 days of April on solid demand for semiconductors and automobiles, data showed Friday.
Outbound shipments reached $18.58 billion in the April 1-10 period, compared with $13.84 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.
The daily average volume of exports inched up 0.3 percent on-year over the cited period. The number of working days during this period stood at 8.5, compared with 7.5 days last year.
Imports went up 6.5 percent on-year to $19.68 billion during the period, resulting in a trade deficit of $1.09 billion, the data showed.
By item, exports of semiconductors surged 32 percent from a year earlier to $3.39 billion. Chip sales accounted for 18.3 percent of the country's total exports over the cited period, up 2.5 percentage points from the same period last year.
Shipments of automobiles soared 11.9 percent on-year to $1.94 billion and those of auto parts went up 10.5 percent to $707 million. Exports of steel products gained 4.2 percent to $1.3 billion.
But sales of petroleum products shed 3.9 percent to $1.31 billion.
By destination, exports to China, the top trading partner of South Korea, climbed 8.8 percent to $3.55 billion, while those to the European Union spiked 30.6 percent to $2.21 billion.
Shipments to the United States slipped 0.6 percent on-year to $3.47 billion, the data showed.
In March, exports gained 3.1 percent from a year earlier to stand at $58.3 billion, marking a second consecutive month of increase. (Yonhap)
