Semiconductors were the driving force behind South Korea's export growth last year, amounting to nearly 100 billion dollars in outbound shipments.

The Korea Customs Service said Friday that exports of semiconductors in 2017 hit a record 99-point-seven billion dollars, marking a 60 percent on-year growth.

It marked the first time for a single item to record more than 90 billion dollars in exports.

Outbound shipments of the chips continued to grow in January and February this year, posting growth of 47 percent compared to the same period in 2016 to stand at around 19 billion dollars.

The surge of semiconductor exports comes on the back of global demand for high-end and high-capacity memory chips which are needed to process smartphones, personal computers and Internet of Things technology.