South Korea's outbound shipments of information and communication technology (ICT) products rose 11.9 percent on-year in September, data showed Thursday, as global demand for semiconductors picked up amid the pandemic.

Exports of ICT products stood at $17.63 billion last month, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Science and ICT, marking an on-year rise in exports for the fourth consecutive month.

Meanwhile, imports of ICT products reached $9.56 billion in September, up 9 percent over the same period, leading to a trade surplus of $8.07 billion in ICT trade, ministry data showed.

ICT products, which take up a major part of South Korea's total exports, had been hard hit by the pandemic earlier this year. They plummeted 15.3 percent on-year in April before making a rebound in June with 1 percent growth.

By category, outbound shipments of semiconductors, the leading export category, rose 11.9 percent last month from the previous year to $9.6 billion.

Exports of memory chips stood at $6.2 billion last month, up 9.8 percent, while logic chips jumped 16.8 percent to reach a record $2.9 billion.

Outbound shipments of displays rose 2.7 percent to $2.1 billion, with exports of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels up 3.3 percent to $1.2 billion.

Exports of mobile phones, including their parts, however, dropped 13.2 percent to $1 billion over the same period.

Outbound shipments to China, the largest overseas market for local ICT products, rose 5.6 percent to $8.2 billion, with shipments to Vietnam jumping 18 percent to $3.1 billion. Exports to the United States spiked 36.3 percent to $2 billion over the same period.

South Korea's overall exports also rebounded in September for the first time in seven months, thanks to the gain in chips, reaching $48 billion, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)