South Korea’s exports of information technology products contracted 9.4 percent on-year in April due to slowdowns in the U.S. and Chinese economies and lingering eurozone woes, the government said Monday.

The country shipped $12.04 billion worth of IT products last month, compared with $13.28 billion a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. However, the country posted a trade surplus of $5.72 billion as imports also fell 5.3 percent to $6.31 billion.

April’s outbound shipment numbers represent the second month in a row that the country’s IT exports have contracted compared to the year before.

The ministry said last month’s negative showing comes as weak global economic growth hurt demand for semiconductors, displays, computers, TVs and various other electronic appliances.

Sluggish economic conditions in the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, and the fiscal crisis affecting some European countries hurt exports, it added.

The ministry said workers taking a full day off to take part in parliamentary election on April 11 hurt production, causing outbound shipments to fall by $700 million to $800 million.

Exports of semiconductors and displays contracted 7.7 percent and 1.6 percent last month to $3.84 billion and $2.30 billion, respectively.

Mobile phones, including smartphones, plunged 36.9 percent to $1.46 billion while exports of TVs dropped by 13.8 percent on-year to $540 million, although computer sales edged up 2.7 percent to $610 million.

South Korea’s IT exports to the United States, Japan and the European Union contracted by double digits in the cited month compared to April 2011.

Shipments to China, including Hong Kong, however, moved up 1.2 percent on-year to $6.12 billion, while numbers for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gained 7.5 percent to $1.21 billion.

For the first four months of this year, the country shipped out $47.50 billion worth of IT products and imported $25.38 billion for a surplus of $22.11 billion.

The ministry predicted exports of system semiconductors and displays should fare better in the coming months thanks to the start of London Olympics, along with rise in demand for combined hardware-software products. 

(Yonhap News)