Exports Continued to Increase
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of South Korea announced on June 1 that South Korea’s total exports reached US$45 billion last month, up 13.4% from a year ago and a record high since September 2011. The ministry added that a double-digit export growth continued for the fifth consecutive month but the rate of increase dropped from the previous month, when ship exports showed a significant increase to US$7.13 billion.
This year, South Korea recorded a year-on-year export growth of 11.1% in January, 20.2% in February, 13.2% in March and 24.1% in April. Last month, South Korea’s total imports increased 18.2% to US$39.1 billion and the country remained in the black for the 64th consecutive month.
The exports of nine out of its 13 major export items showed a positive growth in May. Specifically, semiconductor exports increased 63.3%, steel 36.5%, petroleum product 29.8%, ship 27.5% and petrochemical 13.5%. Semiconductor exports, which increased for eight months in a row, totaled an all-time high of US$7.99 billion with solid state drive exports reaching a record high of US$440 million as well. OLED exports added up to US$720 million, the second-highest ever, and display exports showed a double-digit growth for the sixth consecutive month.
Last month, the country’s average daily exports not including ship exports reached US$2.03 billion, breaking the US$2 billion mark for the first time since October 2014. The daily average continued to increase this year from US$1.77 billion in January.
Exports to the United States and the Middle East fell 1.9% and 2.8% last month, respectively. On the other hand, those to Vietnam increased by no less than 56.9%, the ASEAN region 36%, the CIS region 34.6%, India 29%, the EU region 21.9%, Japan 8.7%, China 7.5% and Latin America 2.4%. Exports to Vietnam increased for 16 months in a row, the ASEAN region for eight, China, Japan, India and the CIS region for seven and Latin America for four.