South Korea's exports of dental implants hit a record high in the first nine months of the year on rising global demand for quality products amid global population aging, the customs agency said Wednesday. Outbound shipments of dental implants surged 17.4 percent on-year to US$653 million in the January-September period, the highest ever for the nine-month period, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. "There has been an increasing demand for dental implants and relevant products in line with the global trend of population aging. South Korean companies are major manufacturers in the sector," an agency official said. Last year, the export value of implants reached a record yearly high of $788 million, and South Korea was the second major dental implants exporter in the world after Switzerland, the agency said. Source: Yonhap News Agency