South Korea’s exports recovery continued last month, with daily shipments pointing to a continued pickup in overseas demand, even though a national holiday reduced working days and hurt headline figures.
The value of total shipments abroad fell 3.6 percent from a year earlier, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said yesterday.
Economists had forecast a 3.5 percent decline.
Photo: Reuters
Average daily shipments still rose 5.6 percent, with the period having two fewer business days than last year.
Overall exports to China fell 5.7 percent, while shipments to the US rose 3.3 percent. Semiconductor exports rose 10 percent and vehicle sales rose 5.8 percent.
The increase in daily shipments suggests that upward momentum in global trade remains intact as many economies reopen.
South Korea’s economy emerged from a recession last quarter, propelled by the strongest export rebound in decades. Products such as semiconductors and computers were among the best-sellers.
China’s broadening recovery bodes well for South Korean exporters from Samsung Electronics Co to Hyundai Mobis Co. China is the biggest buyer of South Korean goods used in the assembly of products sold globally.
Semiconductors and automobiles are “solidly propping up the exports,” South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo said in a statement, pointing to the resurgence of COVID-19 and the US-China tensions as potential risks to trade.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said the government would seek to keep the trade momentum alive with more shipments in medical items, such as masks and testing kits.
South Korea has sold more than US$10 billion in healthcare-related products for the first time this year thanks to booming exports of testing kits, the ministry said.
Healthcare exports last month increased 47 percent annually.
Steel exports fell 6.8 percent, while shipments of oil products plunged 50 percent. Sales of wireless communications devices declined 12 percent, while home-appliance sales rose 15 percent.
Overall exports to the EU increased 9.5 percent, while those to Japan fell 19 percent. Total imports declined 5.8 percent from a year earlier, leaving a trade surplus of US$6 billion.
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