SEOUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export posted a double-digit fall for the first 20 days of this month on the continued downturn in business cycle of the global semiconductor industry, customs office data showed Monday.
Export, which accounts for about half of the South Korean economy, reached 28.3 billion U.S. dollars in the July 1-20 period, down 13.6 percent from the same period of last year, according to Korea Customs Service.
The daily average export declined 16.2 percent to 1.71 billion dollars in the cited period. The country's export kept diminishing for seven straight months through June.
Semiconductor export tumbled 30.2 percent in the 20-day period on the global memory chip downturn. Oil product shipment contracted 15.6 percent, with the figure for ships sliding 24 percent.
Automobile export advanced 19.5 percent, and shipment of telecommunication devices such as smartphone, gained 7.2 percent in the period. Consumer electronics export jumped 34.5 percent.
Export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, dipped 19.3 percent, and those to the United States and the European Union (EU) slipped 5.1 percent and 12.3 percent each.
Shipment to Japan shrank 6.6 percent in the 20-day period, and export to the Middle East countries plunged 30.3 percent.
During the July 1-20 period, import went down 10.3 percent to 28.7 billion dollars from a year earlier, sending the trade deficit to 0.4 billion dollars.
Import from Japan contracted 14.5 percent on weak demand for machinery and chips.