South Korea's annual semiconductor exports surpassed 100 billion dollars for the first time earlier this month, thanks to strong demand overseas.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Thursday, outbound shipments of memory chips hit the milestone on October 16th, outdoing last year's annual record of 97-point-nine billion dollars.

The ministry added it is the first time ever that an export of a single item broke the 100 billion dollar mark, while accumulated sales of semiconductor exports also hit the one trillion dollar mark, after the government began compiling data in 1977.

South Korea's memory chip competitors, the U.S. and Japan, posted their annual export records of 60 billion dollars in 2000 and 46-point-two billion dollars in 2007, respectively.