S. Korea's exports decrease on-year for fifth consecutive month in April

There are growing concerns about South Korea's exports.
Latest data show the amount of outbound shipments fell for the fifth month in a row last month.
The government attributed April's grim figures to falling chip prices.
Our Ko Roon-hee reports.
Semiconductors account for around one-fifth of South Korea's total outbound shipments.
And the fall in prices and lower demand have been dragging down the nation's overall exports since December last year.
According to the trade ministry on Wednesday, South Korea's exports marked around 48-point-nine billion U.S. dollars last month.
This is down two percent from April 2018.
As for why, the ministry pointed to the fall in chip exports.
The amount plunged more than 13-percent on-year.
Analysts have also been pointing to falling chip prices and lower demand for the downward trend.
For instance, according to market tracker DRAMeXchange, the price of a DDR4 8 Gigabit DRAM marked four dollars on average on Tuesday, down 12-percent on-month.
Making matters worse, many IT companies have been delaying investment or clearing stocks...leading to lower demand.
Another reason is the slower growth of China's economy.
Many worry that South Korea's shipments to China are decreasing due to the ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
China's GDP growth marked 6-point-4 percent in the first quarter of this year... down from last year's figure of 6-point-6 percent.
On a brighter note, the trade ministry pointed out that the pace of decrease is slowing down...and added total exports increased if semiconductor shipments weren't taken into account.
Meanwhile, South Korea's imports increased more than two percent on-year in April...marking around 44-point-seven billion dollars.
The trade ministry says export figures are likely to improve in the second half of this year... as demand for chips increases and shipments of autos and ships continue to maintain their solid performance.
Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.