SEOUL: The Korea International Trade Association announced on August 17 that South Korea’s exports to China totaled US$10.129 billion in July this year, down 9.4% from a year ago, and showed a negative year-on-year growth for the 13th consecutive month. South Korea’s exports to China fell by 6.5% in July 2015 and the rate of decrease rose to 16.5% in December last year. Then, it showed a double-digit decrease for each of the following months until April this year. The decrease slowed down to a single-digit of 9.1 percent in May, but rose to 10.3% in June.
In the meantime, South Korea’s imports from China decreased 8.1% from a year earlier to US$7.006 billion last month, resulting in a trade surplus of US$3.123 billion. South Korea’s major export items such as semiconductors, flat panel displays and sensors remained stagnant.
Specifically, semiconductor exports added up to US$1.881 billion, down 14.3% from a year earlier. The figures dropped by 19.4% to US$1.527 billion for flat panel displays and sensors and by 9.8% to US$488 million for wireless communications equipment. However, petroleum product and auto parts exports jumped 35% and 12.8% to US$470.8 million and US$416.8 million, respectively. Last month, South Korea’s exports to the United States and Japan fell 14.4% to US$5.294 billion and 2.1% to US$2.080 billion, too. Meanwhile, its exports to Vietnam, the third-largest export destination for South Korea, increased 7.2% to US$2.823 billion.
