Export gaps to U.S. offset

[Anchor]

Last month's export results have been released.

Due to the shock from U.S. tariffs, exports to the U.S. decreased by more than 6%.

Thanks to an increase in exports to other regions, the total export amount has slightly increased, but there is no guarantee that this will continue.

Reporter Kim Jin-hwa has the story.

[Report]

The largest share of exports to the U.S. comes from automobiles.

Last month's export amount decreased by more than 16% compared to a year ago.

Exports of general machinery and semiconductors also fell by 22% and 31%, respectively.

Exports to the U.S. were bound to decline.

After a slight increase in February and March, there was a 6.8% decrease last month.

Looking at automobiles, which have the largest share, there was already an 11% decrease from January to March.

During this time, poor electric vehicle sales were significant.

In April, the decrease widened to 16%.

This coincided with the impact of the 25% tariff imposed from the 3rd.

[Park Jeong-seong/Director of Trade and Investment at the Ministry of Industry: "The impact of U.S. tariffs is becoming clearly evident. Various factors are combined depending on the market situation for each item...."]

However, the total export amount in April was 3.7% higher, marking the highest level for April on record.

This is because other regions filled the gap left by the U.S.

Exports increased in all three of the four major export regions, excluding the U.S.

The trend of stockpiling semiconductors is also a short-term advantage for exports.

Currently in a state of suspension, there are concerns that the U.S. could impose semiconductor tariffs at any time, leading global IT companies to hoard memory semiconductors.

However, this means that future export demand has been pulled forward, which could turn into a loss for exports after a certain point.

This is KBS News, Kim Jin-hwa.