This Year’s Export Value Hits Record High... Expected to Surpass $640 Billion Annually

Breaking the Previous Record: 2018 Export Amount Surpasses $604.9 Billion

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] South Korea's annual export value this year surpassed the record set in 2018, achieving the highest performance ever.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Customs Service announced on the 13th at 11:36 a.m. that this year's annual export value has exceeded the previous maximum export record of $604.9 billion set in 2018. The annual export value for this year is expected to surpass $640 billion.

Since South Korea first achieved $100 million in exports in 1964, it has successively surpassed $10 billion in 1977, $100 billion in 1995, and $600 billion in 2018. This year, by setting a new annual export record, South Korea rewrote 66 years of trade history since trade statistics began in 1956. The cumulative export value from January to November this year is $583.8 billion, exceeding 2018's $556.7 billion by $27.1 billion.

The driving forces behind the record-high export performance include the leading role of key export industries, the rise of new export items, and the high value-added transformation of export products.

First, exports of key industries such as semiconductors, shipbuilding, and automobiles grew steadily based on strong manufacturing competitiveness. In the semiconductor sector, from January to September this year, South Korea held an overwhelming 58.9% market share in the memory market, surpassing the U.S. (26.3%), Japan (7.9%), and Taiwan (4.8%) (according to market research firm Omdia). According to International Trade Centre (ITC) statistics, automobile exports from January to September amounted to $32.7 billion, ranking 5th after Germany, Japan, the U.S., and Mexico, moving up one rank compared to the 2019 annual ranking (CPTPP).

In the shipbuilding sector, exports from January to September reached $15.8 billion, securing 2nd place with a 20.6% market share, following China ($18.1 billion, 23.7%). In the global market for high value-added ships such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and eco-friendly vessels, South Korea ranked 1st as of November. In the electric vehicle battery market, Korean companies more than doubled their growth compared to the same period last year, maintaining South Korea's position as the world's 2nd largest market share holder.

In the display sector, South Korea maintained market dominance in the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) market with an 83.1% share from January to September, and Samsung Electronics held the top spot in smartphones for three consecutive quarters this year with around a 20% market share.

Diversification of export items into bio, agriculture and fisheries, and cosmetics also drove export growth. Accordingly, the concentration of exports in the 13 major items decreased from 82.1% in 2011 and 77.9% in 2016 to 74.3% cumulatively from January to November this year. New promising export items such as system semiconductors, eco-friendly vehicles, biohealth, secondary batteries, OLED, agricultural and marine products, and cosmetics all grew beyond 2018 to achieve their largest export scale. In particular, four items?bio, secondary batteries, agricultural and marine products, and cosmetics?increased by $12.3 billion compared to 2018, accounting for 45% of the export growth.

The high value-added transformation of export items such as LNG ships, electric vehicles, and OLED also contributed to achieving the highest export performance ever. From January to November this year, the unit price of ship exports rose by 10.2%, and the unit prices of automobile and display exports increased by 17.2% and 38.3%, respectively, compared to 2018, driven by the expanded sales share of electric vehicles and OLED. Although the unit price of petrochemical exports decreased by 2.3% compared to 2018 due to lower oil prices, it rose by 5.2% due to increased exports of high value-added products such as synthetic resins.

Thanks to this strong export performance, South Korea's export ranking this year is expected to remain 7th, the same as last year, and its trade ranking is projected to jump to 8th for the first time in nine years. Market shares also increased in the U.S., European Union (EU), ASEAN (including Taiwan), and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Exports next year are expected to slightly exceed this year's performance, but the growth rate is likely to slow due to the spread of COVID-19 variants, supply chain instability, and the possibility of slower growth in China.

Moon Seung-wook, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, emphasized, "The record-breaking export value is a valuable achievement made by the public and private sectors overcoming various difficulties such as logistics challenges in imports and exports, ongoing variant viruses, and supply chain disruptions. We will do our best to continue this export growth momentum into next year by resolving on-site export and import difficulties, strengthening export capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises, and expanding future trade infrastructure."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.