South Korea Jan. exports to China, US fall, shipments to European Union rise

Shipments to China, South Korea’s largest market, tumbled 21.5 per cent on-year in January in their biggest drop since May 2009, and the trade ministry said export conditions are worsening. The data also showed imports slid 20.1 per cent on-year, compared to a 19.2 per cent fall in December.

The thirteenth straight months of export fall came as China, from which South Korea generates about a quarter of its exports, saw its growth slump in the course of the world No. 2 economy’s structural transition from exports-oriented to domestic demand-centered. Refined petroleum is also a key export, and a drop in oil prices is bringing down the value of that product. The January figure was down slightly from $5.8 billion in the same month of past year. Prices for four-gigabyte DRAM chips shed from 3.59 dollars to 1.89 dollars, with 32-inch liquid crystal display panel prices dropping from 95 dollars to 55 dollars. The report said, “Even among exports and imports to and from FTA countries, shipments of items that benefited under FTAs dropped at a much slower rate than those of goods that did not fall under the benefits of FTAs, again proving that FTAs helped keep imports and exports from crashing”.

Anchor: The nation’s exports slipped 18-and-a-half percent year-on-year in January. Delivery of ships reduced to 3 billion dollars in January from 4.4 billion dollars a year earlier.

The amounts of both exports and imports have declined for 13 consecutive months since January 2015.

The trade surplus narrowed to $5.33 billion in January from the previous month’s revised $7 billion.

A year ago was another bullish twelve-month period for Korea in terms of its current account surplus.