Containers pile up at Pyeongtaek Port in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea on July 31, 2025. Photo: VCG

South Korea's exports to China rose 64 percent year-on-year to $16.5 billion in March, extending their growth streak to five consecutive months, according to a press release on the official website of South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) on Wednesday. 

Semiconductors, computers and petrochemicals were among the key export items, according to the MOTIR.

Commenting on the figures, a South Korean trade representative told the Global Times that the statistics are truly impressive, underscoring the high complementarity between the two neighboring countries. 

"The 64 percent surge signals a strong recovery in the IT cycle. As Chinese tech giants finish clearing their inventories and start upgrading servers and devices, demand for Korean components has returned to a robust growth phase," Soyi Park, assistant manager of the Korea International Trade Association, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

China's expansion in artificial intelligence and robotics acts as a major tailwind for South Korea, Park said, noting that as China builds more infrastructure and applications, the need for South Korea's high-performance memory and computing hardware  rises proportionally.

Park added that "We are seeing a technological symbiosis where South Korea provides the 'core brains' and China provides the 'massive application market'."

South Korea's data comes just weeks after China's General Administration of Customs released trade figures for the first two months of this year. Bilateral trade between China and South Korea reached $61.37 billion, up 31 percent year-on-year, with both imports and exports posting double-digit growth.

China is South Korea's largest trading partner, biggest export market, and top source of imports, while South Korea is China's third-largest trading partner, according to information published on the official website of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Machinery and electronics-related products represent an important part of the trade.

South Korea's strong exports to China indicate that demand for technology-related products is continuously rising, particularly in high-tech sectors such as semiconductors and computers, providing a significant boost to South Korean exports, Da Zhigang, a researcher at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Amid increasing global trade uncertainty, the Chinese market offers a more stable source of growth for South Korean products, reflecting the stability and appeal of China's economic fundamentals, the expert added.

On March 18, China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met in Beijing with South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Kim Jung-kwan. The two sides held in-depth discussions on deepening China-South Korea economic and trade cooperation, according to the official website of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

At the meeting, Wang said that the Chinese side is willing to maintain stability in industrial and supply chains with South Korea, strengthen cooperation in trade and investment, enhance collaboration under regional and multilateral frameworks such as the World Trade Organization and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and promote the healthy and stable development of China-South Korea economic and trade relations, said the MOFCOM.