South Korea’s export of semiconductors climbed for the fifth consecutive month as of March.

Total semiconductor exports hit US$11.69 billion in March, an increase of 33.9% from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Memory chips accounted for US$7.45 billion, with system chips accounting for US$3.8 billion, an increase of 63% and 4.6%, respectively, from last year.

In memory, DRAM accounted for US$3.31 billion and NAND US$820 million, 68.8% and 28.2% higher than the same period last year respectively.

The ministry said the expansion of the AI market and recovery of demand for IT devices were the causes of the increase.