South Korea's Early November Exports More Than Double

South Korea’s exports more than doubled in the first 10 days of November, driven by a surge in semiconductor shipments, preliminary data from the Korea Customs Service showed on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported. Outbound shipments for November 1 to 10 reached US$33.5 billion, up from US$15.7 billion in the same period a year earlier.

The figure was the highest first-10-days export value recorded for any November, according to the report carried by The Korea Times and Korea JoongAng Daily. Aju Press, citing the same customs data, put exports at US$33.46 billion, a gain of 111.9 percent from a year earlier.

Imports climbed 45 percent year on year to US$24.7 billion, leaving a trade surplus of US$8.8 billion for the period. Aju Press said this compared with a deficit of US$1.24 billion in the same 10 days last year.

Chips drive the surge

Semiconductor exports soared 331.2 percent to US$16.6 billion, according to the customs data reported by Yonhap. Chips accounted for 49.7 percent of the country’s total outbound shipments in the period, a share 25.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

Shipments of petroleum products also more than doubled to US$2 billion. Car exports, however, slipped 4.3 percent to US$1.4 billion.

China and US shipments climb

By destination, exports to China jumped 148 percent to US$9.16 billion. Shipments to the United States rose 163.6 percent to US$6.79 billion, the data showed.

What’s next

Cumulative exports for the year through November 10 stood at US$963.6 billion, putting the country on track to top US$1 trillion in annual exports for the first time, Yonhap reported. The cumulative trade surplus over the same stretch was US$303.7 billion.

Aju Press, which put year-to-date exports at US$963.7 billion, said shipments were up 62 percent from a year earlier and US$36.3 billion short of the US$1 trillion mark. Reaching that level would place South Korea alongside only the United States, China and Japan, the outlet said.

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