Weak demand drags down South Korea's technology product exports in January for the first time in over a year.

Due to a sharp decline in demand from China during the Spring Festival holiday, South Korea's exports of technology products saw a decrease for the first time in over a year. South Korean authorities said in a statement on Thursday that in January, exports of technology products including memory chips, smartphones, and computers decreased by 0.4% compared to the same period last year. Technology products are the most profitable products in South Korea's exports. The South Korean government releases separate statistics for this sector every month. Last year, the global development of artificial intelligence technology drove demand for SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics' high bandwidth memory (HBM), resulting in significant semiconductor sales growth in South Korea. However, with concerns about the outlook for high-end artificial intelligence chip demand sparked by the DeepSeek "low cost + high performance" open-source model, there are worries that demand for HBM may also decrease. In addition, amid Trump's return to the White House and his aggressive protectionist policies, there are concerns that global trade may cool down under the impact of tariffs and trade wars, which is not good news for South Korea, which relies on global trade for economic growth.