On Recovery
Korea’s export recovery is continuing for five consecutive months.
According to “Imports and Exports in March 2017,” released by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE), exports in March this year totaled US$48.9 billion, up 13.7 percent from the same period last year. After double-digit growth for three consecutive months, exports reached the highest figure in two years and three months. Imports totaled US$42.3 billion, up 26.9 percent. As a result, Korea’s trade balance recorded a surplus of US$6.6 billion.
By item, exports of major products such as semiconductors, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and cosmetics hit new record highs, taking the lead in strong overall exports. Semiconductors posted record exports of US$7.05 billion for the third consecutive month. The reason for a boom in semiconductor export is that the unit prices of major DRAM products shifted from DDR 3 DRAMs to high-priced 4G DDR4 DRAMs as smart phones required more powerful DRAMs for higher specification, export prices hiked and order volume also swelled.
Flat-panel displays also posted a record US$720 million in exports since September last year. In particular, OLED exports amounted to US$730 million. Petrochemicals chalked up the largest export volume (US$4.09 billion) since October 2014 due to an increase in production capacity and a rise in export unit prices due to a decline in regular maintenance work. Cosmetics also recorded the highest monthly exports (US$450 million), with exports to the ASEAN and Japan ballooned.
By region, Corporate Korea recorded the growth of exports to Vietnam (14 consecutive months), the ASEAN (6 consecutive months) and China, Japan and India (5 consecutive months), and exports to the Middle East switched for a rise.