SEJONG: South Korea posted a trade surplus for the 44th month in a row in September as imports dropped at a much faster pace than exports, customs data showed Thursday.
According to the data by the Korea Customs Service (KCS), the country’s trade surplus reached US$8.9 billion last month, up from $3.3 billion a year earlier and the $4.2 billion in August.
Exports were down 8.4 percent on-year to $43.5 billion in August, while imports nosedived 21.8 percent to $34.6 billion. In September 2014, exports hit $47.4 billion, with imports standing at $44.2 billion.
South Korea’s trade account has been in the black since February 2012. Last month, semiconductor exports edged up 0.9 percent on-year, with numbers for wired telecommunication terminal equipment jumping 74.9 percent. Outbound shipments of automobiles and car parts were also up 0.5 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively. On the downside, shipments of petroleum products and ships plunged 35 percent and 20.7 percent, respectively, with liquid crystal displays and wireless communication devices all losing ground.
By region, exports to the European Union (EU) jumped 19.7 percent on-year, while those for China, South Korea’s No. 1 export market, fell 5 percent. Exports to the United States, the Middle East, Latin America, Australia and Japan all backtracked last month vis-a-vis the year before.
Computer chip imports rose 5.9 percent on-year in September, with information technology-related machinery imports rising 13.6 percent. Inbound shipments of crude oil, chemicals, machinery, steel products all declined last month. Crude oil, which accounts for a sizable part of South Korea’s imports, plunged 52 percent on-year.
Imports from the U.S. and China fell 17.5 percent and 0.6 percent each last month, with numbers also down for the EU, the Middle East, Japan, Australia and Latin America. In the first nine months of 2015, the country’s cumulative exports reached $396.9 billion, down 6.6 percent from a year earlier, while imports came to $330.8 billion, representing a 16.5 percent drop.
In the January-September period, the country’s trade surplus stood at $66.1 billion, much larger than the $28.8 billion in the black posted for the same period in 2014, according to the KCS data. The surplus for this year already exceeds the total for the whole of 2014 that stood at $47.2 billion.
