Weighed upon by COVID-19 Pandemic
The Federation of Korean Industries announced on Sept. 7 that the overseas sales of the top 100 South Korean enterprises dropped 19.8 percent year on year to 146.3 trillion won in the second quarter of this year in the wake of COVID-19.
In the first quarter of this year, the overseas sales increased 0.65 percent to 170.4 trillion won with the economic impact of the pandemic limited to Asia. However, in the second quarter, the pandemic engulfed the companies, especially those in the electrical and electronics, automobile and auto parts, and energy and chemical industries.
Specifically, the overseas sales of the electrical and electronics sector fell 5.1 percent year on year to 71 trillion won. Those of automobile and auto parts dropped 36.5 percent, those of energy and chemical dropped 30.9 percent, and those of steelmakers plunged 80.1 percent.
Those enterprises’ sales in Asia, the Americas and Europe decreased 24 percent, 12.6 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively. Still, the combined sales in China of Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company, LG Electronics, SK Hynix and Hyundai Mobis increased 5.9 percent from a year earlier and 19.6 percent from the previous quarter. According to the federation, this has to do with a fast recovery of the Chinese economy, in which a real growth rate of 3.2 percent was posted in the second quarter and large-scale infrastructure investments are scheduled in relation to 5G communications, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, etc.