Economic Recovery from COVID-19 Boosts Exports in Key Industries like Semiconductors, Cars, and Ships
Annual Export Value Expected to Surpass $600 Billion This Year
[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] South Korea has set a new record in trade history by surpassing an annual trade volume of 1 trillion dollars in the shortest period ever. Amid economic recovery following COVID-19, exports of key items such as semiconductors and automobiles performed well, enabling the country to recover the 1 trillion dollar mark within a year. This year is also expected to achieve the largest trade scale in history.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Customs Service announced on the 26th at 1:53 p.m. that South Korea's trade volume exceeded 1 trillion dollars (exports of 512.2 billion dollars, imports of 487.8 billion dollars). This achievement was reached in 299 days, the shortest period since trade statistics began in 1956, beating the previous shortest record of 320 days set on November 16, 2018, by 21 days.
Korea's trade reached 1 trillion dollars annually seven times in total during 2011?2014 and 2017?2019. However, due to the global trade slump caused by COVID-19 in 2020, the trade volume fell below 1 trillion dollars but has recovered again this year. Notably, this year not only surpassed the 1 trillion dollar trade volume in the shortest period ever but also recorded the highest growth rate since trade statistics began.
If this trend continues, the annual trade volume this year is expected to completely overcome the impact of COVID-19 and surpass the 2018 record of 1.1401 trillion dollars, setting a new all-time high. Exports this year also exceeded 500 billion dollars on October 20, continuing a five-year streak of surpassing 500 billion dollars, and there is a growing possibility of breaking the annual 600 billion dollar mark, setting a new record.
This achievement is based on solid manufacturing competitiveness in semiconductors, automobiles, displays, shipbuilding, and the strong performance of key export items. Despite COVID-19, minimizing domestic production disruptions, the competitiveness of products in key industries such as semiconductors, shipbuilding, and smartphones has solidified their position in the global market. In particular, new growth and high value-added items such as system semiconductors, eco-friendly automobiles, high value-added ships, secondary batteries, organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), and biohealth have grown as promising new export items.
Thanks to the increase in sales of such high value-added items, both export volume and unit prices grew evenly. Since the export volume index began to rebound from the third quarter of last year, the export unit price index has also continued to rise this year, resulting in sustained growth in both indices.
The cumulative export amount of small and medium-sized enterprises also reached a record high of 85.3 billion dollars as of September this year, playing a significant role in the recent export boom.
Moon Seung-wook, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "Achieving the 1 trillion dollar trade volume in the shortest period ever is a valuable accomplishment achieved by all citizens overcoming various difficulties such as logistics challenges in exports and imports, persistent variant viruses, and supply chain disruptions." He added, "We will do our best to continue the momentum of trade growth by resolving on-site difficulties in export and import logistics, strengthening the export capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises, and expanding the future trade infrastructure to achieve the highest annual export volume ever."
Meanwhile, the government plans to hold an expanded trade strategy coordination meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum on the 27th to share the driving forces behind achieving the 1 trillion dollar trade volume and discuss measures to resolve export site difficulties and expand future trade infrastructure.
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