4월 ICT수출 전년동월대비 10.6 감소..."메모리 반도체 단가 하락 영향"br br More disappointing news for South Korea's already struggling exports.br Shipments from the ICT sector last month continued to fall.br Our Ko Roon-hee explains why. br South Korea's exports of ICT products fell again in April... which could be another alarming sign for the nation's export-reliant economy. br According to the Trade Ministry on Tuesday, Korea's ICT exports slumped by 10-point-6 percent on-year last month... marking around 15-point-2 billion U.S. dollars. The figure has been dropping on-year for six consecutive months now... and the ministry has said poor semiconductor exports are behind the fall. br Chip exports decreased by more than 13-percent during the same period... because of falling prices in the memory chip sector. br Spot prices of 4 Gigabit DRAM fell to 2-point-25 U.S. dollars... which is a huge drop from December's figure of 3-point-03 dollars. br Analysts say that the market has been suffering from oversupply and lower-than-expected demand from data centers.br This has hit Korean exports hard... as semiconductors account for more than 55-percent of total ICT exports.br Outbound shipments of displays, another key export item, decreased by more than 16-percent.br This was mainly due to the rising competition from China in the LCD panel industry. br On a brighter note, exports of smartphones and computers increased.br In terms of export destinations, shipments to China slumped by more than 15-percent... while exports to the U.S. jumped slightly.br The ministry says... many Chinese consumers are purchasing locally manufactured products. br Meanwhile, the amount of imports increased slightly to around 9-point-5 billion dollars,... bringing the trade surplus to around 5-point-7 billion.br To boost falling exports, the South Korean government has been venturing into new semiconductor areas... such as the non-memory field.br Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.