'Comparison of Global Trade Market Shares of the Four Major Manufacturing Countries'
South Korea's Exports in Q1-Q3 Last Year Down 9.8% YoY
[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] South Korea's export growth rate last year declined as global trade contracted due to the US-China trade conflict.
According to the "Comparison of Market Shares in the Global Trade Market of the Four Major Manufacturing Countries" released by the Federation of Korean Industries on the 17th, total global exports from the first to the third quarter of 2019 decreased by 2.94% compared to the same period the previous year. Among them, South Korea showed a decrease rate of 9.83%, the largest decline among the four major manufacturing countries including China (-0.09%), Japan (-4.5%), and Germany (-5.21%).
An analysis of changes in market shares of the four major manufacturing powers in the world's top 20 traded products (excluding crude oil and gas) over 10 years since the 2008 global financial crisis showed that South Korea's share increased by 2.28 percentage points from 4.3% in 2008 to 6.58% in 2018.
By product category, semiconductor market share increased by 23.7 percentage points, and automobile market share grew by 1.1 percentage points. On the other hand, shipbuilding decreased by 15.4 percentage points.
Meanwhile, excluding semiconductors, which accounted for about 18% of South Korea's total exports in 2019, South Korea's market share increased only by 0.48 percentage points from 4.02% in 2008 to 4.51% in 2018.
In the case of China, the market share of the top 20 products nearly doubled over 10 years. Except for two products, TVs and cargo trucks, all product categories increased. Semiconductors and telecommunications equipment saw market shares increase by more than 20 percentage points. For Japan, declines were concentrated in passenger cars and telecommunications equipment market shares.
Um Chi-sung, Director of International Cooperation at the Federation of Korean Industries, said, "Our trade authorities should further strengthen cooperation with the international community to revise the Korea-China FTA tariff concessions, advance bilateral FTA negotiations with Russia, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan, conclude the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) within the year, and restore the WTO multilateral trade system."
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