South Korea's exports of integrated circuit(IC) chips soared last year. 

According to the Bank of Korea statistics, the average export index of IC chips rose more than 28 percent to 453 last year. That's the highest growth since the index grew almost 44 percent in 2012.  

By comparison, that figure came to minus zero-point-seven percent in 2013, nine-point-four in 2014, 12-point-seven in 2015 and 16-point-four in 2016. 

Integrated circuit chips include DRAM chips, flash memory chips and system semiconductors. 

On the back of rising IC chip exports, SK Hynix saw its sales grow 75 percent to 30-point-one trillion won and operating profits 319 percent to 13-point-seven trillion won last year. 

Samsung Electronics also posted 72 trillion won in sales and 34 trillion won in operating profits in semiconductor exports alone.