SEOUL: South Korea’s imports of furniture hit an all-time high in the first half of this year on the back of an apparent recovery in the country’s housing market, customs data showed Thursday.
Furniture imports reached US$1.36 billion in the January-June period, up 12.3 percent from the previous record high of $1.21 billion the previous year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service.
The figure is expected to continue to rise this year, exceeding the $2.59 billion in imports tallied last year. Analysts said that the recovery in the local housing market boosted demand for office and home fittings.
South Korea’s home transactions jumped 29.1 percent on-year to a record 610,796 through June, according to separate government data.
Furniture imports from China reached 224,300 tons in the six-month period, accounting for 72.9 percent of the overall imports, followed by Vietnamese settings with 38,600 tons and Indonesian settings with 8,100 tons.
According to separate data released by a local furniture cooperative, South Korean furniture manufactures with five employees or more posted a combined 10.1 trillion won ($8.8 billion) in sales in 2013.
