Driven by Chips and Ships
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced on August 1 that South Korea’s total exports reached US$48.85 billion last month, up 19.5% from a year ago. The total exports showed a double-digit growth for the seventh consecutive month.
Ship exports showed a year-on-year increase of no less than 208.2% last month, when a total of 28 ships and two offshore plants worth US$6.09 billion in total were exported from South Korea. The ministry explained that such a large-scale simultaneous delivery was a very rare incident. Semiconductor exports totaled US$7.89 billion, the second-highest ever, with a year-on-year increase of 57.8%.
South Korea’s export growth rate drops to 2.8% when semiconductor and ship exports are excluded from the calculation. Last month, the two items accounted for no less than 30% of the total exports. Experts point out that ship exports are likely to cause a statistical illusion because the figure itself is very large and the exports tend to be concentrated in certain months. The country’s export growth rate for last month is 9.9% when the figure is excluded from the calculation.
By region, South Korea’s exports to India hit an all-time high with a year-on-year increase of 79.2%. Those to ASEAN member countries increased 31.5% to US$8.36 billion, the second-highest ever, led by LNG carrier, display and semiconductor exports. The exports to Vietnam grew 29.9% with display and semiconductor exports growing 166% and 60.3%, respectively. Automobile exports to the CIS region jumped by 267% to contribute to a year-on-year growth of 21.6%. The exports to the EU increased 10.2%, the United States 7%, China 6.6% and Japan 5.1%, too. Those to the Middle East and Latin America fell 5.4% and 7.1%, respectively.
South Korea’s total imports increased 14.5% to US$38.2 billion and it posted a trade surplus of US$10.65 billion last month, the 66th consecutive month of its trade surplus. The country’s trade surplus for the first seven months of this year reached US$55.7 billion with its trade surplus with the United States falling 9.8% year on year to US$1.66 billion.