Yearly exports reached an all-time high on Monday, with total volume for 2021 on track to eclipse 640 billion dollars.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, as of 11:36 a.m., exports for the year broke past the previous annual record of 604-point-nine billion dollars set in 2018.

The trade ministry attributed the latest record to solid growth in the key export industries of semiconductors, shipbuilding and automobiles despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the advancement of new items in the biohealth, agriculture and cosmetics industries. 

South Korea remained seventh in global exports for 2021, while it rose to eighth for the first time in nine years on the trade list.

The nation's outbound shipments, which hit the 100-million-dollar mark in 1964, exceeded ten billion dollars in 1977, 100 billion dollars in 1995 and 600 billion dollars in 2018.