According to the Bloomberg News Agency website on the 30th, South Korea’s semiconductor output fell for the first time in more than four years, a sign that chip manufacturers are preparing for a slowdown in global demand.

According to the report, the data released by the Korean Bureau of Statistics on the 30th showed that the semiconductor output in August fell 1.7% year on year, a sharp reversal compared with the 17.3% growth reported in July.

The report also said that this was the first decline since January 2018. At the same time, chip inventory surged 67.3%, indicating that manufacturers are adapting to the deteriorating international outlook. The Korean Bureau of Statistics said that factory shipments also fell for the second consecutive month in August, down 20.4%.

According to the report, these three indicators provide the latest evidence that the global economy is heading for a downturn, mainly due to the cooling demand for electronic products, the main source of economic growth.

The report noted that at the beginning of this month, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. of South Korea also issued a warning of a bleak outlook for the second half of this year. According to the American IC Research Company, the market of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), the main revenue source of Samsung Electronics, fell rapidly, shrinking by half from May to July.

According to the report, chip manufacturing is the largest industrial sector in South Korea’s trade dependent economy, which is struggling with high energy prices and the devaluation of the Korean won. The Korean won is the second largest devaluation currency in Asia after the Japanese yen this year.