South Korea's export of information and communications technology (ICT) products hit a record high last year thanks to robust demand for semiconductors, a government report showed Thursday.

The ICT export increased 11.5 percent over the year to reach a new high of 220.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, topping the previous high of 197.6 billion dollars tallied in 2017, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Import in the ICT sector amounted to 107.1 billion dollars, sending last year's trade surplus to 113.3 billion dollars. It was the country's biggest trade surplus in the industry.

Semiconductor export jumped 28.6 percent to 128.2 billion dollars last year on demand for memory chips used for servers and high-end smartphones.

Display panel shipment dipped 8.4 percent, but export for computer and peripherals advanced 17.4 percent on strong demand for solid state disc (SSD).

The ICT export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, posted a new yearly high of 119.4 billion dollars in 2018, taking up 54.2 percent of the total ICT shipment.

Export of ICT products to Vietnam amounted to 27.9 billion dollars last year, with the shipment to the United States standing at 20.5 billion dollars.