South Korea's exports surged 53 per cent from a year earlier to a new monthly high of $87.8 billion in May, driven by the semiconductor supercycle, government data showed on Monday.

It marked the third consecutive month the country's outbound shipments surpassed the $80 billion mark, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.

Imports rose 20.8 percent on-year to $60.8 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $26.95 billion, reports Yonhap news agency.

The combined trade surplus for the first five months of this year reached $101.9 billion, surpassing the yearly record of $95.2 billion set in 2017.

Exports were led by the semiconductor industry, which is enjoying a supercycle on the back of global big tech's continued investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Seoul's chip exports soared 169.4 percent on-year to an all-time monthly high of $37.2 billion in May.

It marked the third consecutive month chip exports went over the $30 billion threshold. Semiconductor products accounted for more than 42 percent of the country's total May exports.

In detail, outbound shipments of D-RAMs and NAND flash memory shot up 369.8 percent and 206.8 percent to $18.6 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.

Computer exports also skyrocketed 290.7 percent to $4.18 billion thanks to global demand for solid state drives for AI servers.

Exports of wireless communications equipment and displays increased 12.6 percent and 9.4 percent to $1.46 billion and $1.47 billion, respectively.

The combined value of shipments of petroleum products expanded 46.6 percent to $5.25 billion, despite a 23.8 percent decrease in volume, with rising oil prices amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Notably, the volume of shipments of gasoline, diesel and kerosene products, currently under export control, each dropped by 31.1 percent, 24.3 percent and 99.9 percent on-year last month.

Exports of biohealth products added 5.2 percent to $1.44 billion, while cosmetics exports climbed 24.2 percent to $1.18 billion, the highest figure for any May.

Shipments of agro-fisheries products also went up 4.7 percent to $1.07 billion, and ship exports advanced 16.7 percent to $2.61 billion.