Despite a decline in overall exports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the portion of outbound shipments by South Korea's top ten exporters expanded last year.

According to data from Statistics Korea and Korea Customs Service on Tuesday, exports totaled 511-point-two billion won last year, down five-point-five percent from a year earlier.

During the same period, however, shipments by the top ten exporters took up 35-point-four percent of the total, up point-eight percentage points.

An official at the statistics agency said while exports by conglomerates declined overall, shipments by the top ten actually increased thanks to rising global demand for semiconductors.

Meanwhile, the number of exporters fell point-four percent on-year to 97-thousand-12, which is the first time the number has dropped since the agency began compiling related data in 2010.