Shipments of Cosmetics to China, Hong Kong Up, to Japan Down

As depreciation of the Japanese yen is intensifying, Japan will lose its position as the second largest importer of Korean cosmetics in the world to Hong Kong. China is first.

According to export and import statistics released by the Korea Customs Service on Oct. 5, Korea exported the most cosmetics products (including perfumes and hair products) to China (19,358 tons, US$323 million) from January to August this year, and Hong Kong (9,574 tons, US$213 million) was right behind. Japan was the third country, to which Korea exported 8,207 tons of cosmetics (US$104 million).

This is totally different from the same period last year when Japan (9,217 tons) was the unquestionable number two right next to China (12,953 tons), easily beating Hong Kong (5,230 tons based on export quantity.

Since the 2000s, Japan has always competed with China and the U.S. as the country to which Korea exports the most. This is the first time for Japan to be left behind Hong Kong in the 15 years since 1999.

Cosmetics exports to China increased 33.1 percent this year compared to the same period last year. Exports to Hong Kong during the period between January and August this year surpassed 90 percent of total exports last year as well.

Likewise, paradigm of cosmetics export from Korea is changing primarily because market for Japanese expensive cosmetics is depressed, and Korean cosmetics are losing price competitiveness due to the depreciation of the Japanese yen. In this situation, medium and low-priced cosmetics have difficulty to penetrate the Japanese market as they do in China or Hong Kong.