Seoul: South Korea had 81 products that led global exports in 2024, including memory chips, solid state drives (SSDs), and face masks, a report showed Tuesday. The report highlighted South Korea's significant contribution to the global market in various key product categories.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the report published by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) showed that the value of these 81 Korea-produced items accounted for the largest share of global export value in their respective categories. This positions South Korea as a formidable player in the global export market.

China was at the top with 2,087 items with the largest export market share, followed by Germany with 520 items, the United States with 505, Italy with 199, and India with 156. Despite these figures, South Korea's achievement in topping the list for these key products is noteworthy.

South Korea had 19 items ranked between second to 10th in terms of export market share, KITA said, noting the country is likely to increase its number of globally leading products in the future. The country's top-selling items included memory chips, electrical transformers, SSDs, lead-acid starter batteries for automobiles, rubber for automotive components, and sheet masks.

Notably, Korea reclaimed the top spot for memory chips from China for the first time in five years in 2024, thanks to strong demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) and other advanced products made by Korean companies, KITA said. This marks a significant achievement for South Korea in the competitive memory chip market.

In the tanker segment, Korea lost the top spot to China due to the latter's strategy of securing large volumes of low-value vessels. However, it is expected to retake the position in 2025 on the back of the recent boom in Seoul's liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship orders, KITA added. This indicates South Korea's potential to reclaim its leadership in the tanker industry.