Continuous Depressed Surplus
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced on Dec. 1 that Korea’s export in November this year fell 4.7 percent from a year ago to US$44.426 billion, and import dropped by 17.6 percent to US$34.1 billion during the same period and the resultant trade surplus of approximately US$10.4 billion became a new monthly record.
Korea managed to show at least some improvement in export in comparison to October this year, when export plunged by 15.8 percent to make the month the darkest one since Aug. 2009. Nevertheless, it is said that the recovery is only temporary because it is based on export of three previously-built offshore plants and some ships worth US$2.6 billion.
Last month, total exports from Korea to China and the United States each showed a decrease of 6.8 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively. Fortunately though, its export to the EU recorded an increase of 52.5 percent, making a significant turnaround from the negative 12.5 percent of the preceding month.
In terms of export items, ship (up 133.7 percent), wireless communication equipment (up 23.6 percent) and auto parts (up 1.8 percent) showed a positive growth. Automobile export declined by 7.6 percent due to fall in demand from emerging market. The rate of decrease amounted to 26.6 percent for steel products, 19.3 percent for flat panel display, 9.6 percent for semiconductor and 13.7 percent for machinery in general.
In the meantime, Korea’s import of consumer goods rose by 5.7 percent while those of raw materials and capital goods decreased by 23.7 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.