Export Volume Increased 3.9% while Export Value Decreased 6.4% in June from a Year ago

It has been found that South Korea’s export volume increased 3.9% last month from a year earlier, while the total export value kept the downward trend owing to aftereffects of low oil prices, etc. 

According to the “2016 June Trade Index and Terms of Trade’ data compiled by the Bank of Korea on July 25, the interim export volume index for June is 141.61, up 3.9% from the same month of last year. As the result, the export volume recorded a consecutive increase for two months after April this year when the export volume decreased owing to the recession of emerging economies.

The chemical sector including cosmetics and the basic petrochemical showed the most rapid increase of 15.8%. Electric and electronic appliances and food & drink products also increased by 9.4% and 9.2% respectively. On the other hand, some exports including transport equipment (-8.3%), general machineries (-7.2%), and coal & petroleum products (-2.5%) decreased compared to the same month of last year.

However, the export value index in June was 112.7, a 6.4% decrease from a year ago. It means that the unit export price decreased while the total export volume increased, keeping  Korean exports still in the slump.

The export value of coal & petroleum products took a nosedive by 27.2% owing to the aftermath of low oil price compared to the same month of last year, and other products such as primary metal products (-8.3%) and generic equipment (-8.0%) also showed a decrease. In contrast, export values of some products including food & drink products (11.4%) and metal products (2.3%) showed a rising trend.
 
Meanwhile, the tentative import volume index was 118.85, up 2.3% from a year ago. The import volume of transport equipment (28.4%) and coal & petroleum products (11.4%) increased sharply, while the imports volume of  some products including general machineries (-14.8%), precision machineries (-9.3%), and nonmetallic mineral products (-8.1%) decreased.