SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports rose in the first half of this year on solid demand for locally-made semiconductors and petrochemicals, a government report showed Thursday.
Exports, which account for about half of the economy, reached 296.79 billion U.S. dollars during the January-June period, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The growth was led by chips and petrochemicals, of which exports touched new highs of 61.27 billion dollars and 24.96 billion dollars, respectively, in the first half.
Oil product export jumped 34.3 percent on higher crude oil price, with shipments for computer and cosmetics rising almost 40 percent.
Exports in the promising industries advanced 23.9 percent over the year to 39.01 billion dollars in the first half. The promising industries refer to electric car, robot, bio-health, aerospace, new energy, new material industries as well as next-generation chip and display panel.
The exports in the promising industries accounted for 13.1 percent of the total in the first half, continuing to grow from 11.2 percent in the first half of 2016 and 12.8 percent in the first half of 2017 each.
Electric vehicle export surged 95.1 percent in the first half, marking the fastest growth among the promising sectors.
Shipments for next-generation semiconductor, bio-health product, new high-tech material and new energy posted a double-digit increase in the first half.
