Korea’s export machine is now a chip machine. Korea Customs Service figures for Sept. 1-20 put outbound shipments at $71.4 billion, up 78.3% from a year earlier. That is a record for any 20-day window. Daily average exports rose 89.8% to $4.61 billion. Chips did the heavy lift. Semiconductor exports hit $34.1 billion, up 259.4%, and took 47.8% of the total. A year ago that share was about 24 points lower. Phones were the rare soft spot, down 0.4%. Oil products rose 47.8%. Cars rose 9.3%. Ships rose 63%. China took $16.6 billion, up 113.8%. The US took $14.2 billion, up 118%. Vietnam and the EU also grew. China, the US, and Vietnam together were 51.4% of exports. Imports rose 26.7% to $48.4 billion. The trade surplus was about $23 billion. This is an official print, not a forecast. It also means almost half the country’s 20-day export book now sits in one product.