South Korea's Import And Export Survey In December 2015

South Korea's Ministry of industry and Commerce Resources announced the "import and export trends in 2015 (December and full year) and the 2016 import and export outlook" report that the total export volume of South Korea to (2015) was US $527 billion 200 million, a decrease of 7.9% compared with the previous (2014) year, and the import volume of US $436 billion 800 million, which was also significantly reduced by 16.9% compared with the previous (2014) year. The trade surplus was US $90 billion 400 million, and a new record higher than before (2014) years. The annual import and export volume is the provisional value of Customs Statistics for January 1st ~12 31.

South Korea's exports (2015) were affected by the global economic downturn, oil price decline and Global trade volume reduction, which declined with the structural changes in the import structure of China and the increase in overseas production by Korean companies. However, export volume continued to increase in the world, ranking higher in the world than in 2014, ranking sixth in the world. On the other hand, although imports of capital and consumer goods increased, oil prices fell sharply, resulting in a significant reduction in imports of raw materials, and overall imports continued to decline.

In 2015, the 13 largest export items in South Korea (the Provisional Statistics for customs clearance from January 1st to December 31st) increased 10%, 0.5% and 0.3% respectively, except for wireless communications machines, semiconductors and ships. Computers, general machinery, automobile parts, automobiles, flat displays, Textiles Exports of iron and steel products, household appliances, petrochemicals and petroleum products declined by 1%, 3.2%, 4.1%, 6.4%, 8.1%, 10.3%, 15%, 16.8%, 21.4% and 36.6% respectively. The main export areas (provisional values of customs statistics from January 1st to December 20th): exports to Vietnam, including the US, mainland China, the European Union (EU), the ASEAN (ASEAN), the Middle East, central and South America and Japan, have declined by 0.6%, 5.6%, 6.9%, 11.4%, 12.4%, 14.6% and 20.4%, respectively, in addition to the 24.3% increase in exports to Vietnam.

The import situation in 2015 (the provisional value of customs statistics from January 1st to December 20th), imports of consumer goods increased by 3.3% compared with the previous (2014) year, imports of capital goods increased by 1.2%, and imports of raw materials decreased by 29.6%. Among them, imports of consumer goods, automobiles and mobile phones increased by 22.6% and 82.5% respectively, while imports of other plastic products and fruit products decreased by 7.4% and 20.9% respectively. Capital goods projects, memory semiconductors, process controllers, other wireless communication machine parts and aircraft imports increased by 34.7%, 15.7%, 18.1% and 34.2% respectively. Imports of raw materials, coal, iron and steel products, gas, crude oil and petroleum products declined by 17.8%, 24.9%, 41%, 41.8% and 48.8% respectively.

　　 The Republic of Korea The characteristics and evaluation analysis of the export situation of the Ministry of industry and commerce to the year (2015) shows that the main reason for the export decline is the decline in oil prices, and the decrease in exports related to the oil price decline is high, accounting for 64% of the total export reduction. However, the export volume has remained stable compared with other major countries, though the export price has decreased and export volume has been reduced. In addition, with the increase in exports to overseas production bases, Vietnam's position in the export countries of Korea has jumped to third place from fifth in the previous year. In terms of export projects, exports of major items such as automobiles and steel have declined, and exports of potential items such as cosmetics and SSD have increased substantially, and export projects have diversified.

It is expected that most of the boom in the advanced countries will be revival, and the global trade is expected to resume growth. With the signing of the new FTA signed by Han Lu and Han Yue, it will have an optimistic impact on the trade environment of Korea. However, the slowdown in mainland China's economy, the continuous fall in oil prices and the rise in interest rates in the United States may aggravate the downturn in the emerging economies, so it is necessary for South Korea to respond to possible risks. On the other hand, under the influence of base effect, the reduction of imports of raw materials should be reduced, and with the recovery of consumer confidence, the import of capital and consumer goods is expected to increase. According to the Ministry of industry and Commerce resources, South Korea's exports this year are expected to grow by 2.1%, import growth by 2.6% and trade surplus of about 90 billion US dollars.

In December 2015, the export volume of South Korea in January was $42 billion 600 million, which was 13.8% lower than that in the previous (2014) year, and the import volume was $35 billion 500 million, which was significantly reduced by 19.2% compared with the previous (2014) year. The trade surplus was $7 billion 200 million, a record of a continuous surplus of 47 months. In addition, in the 13 major export projects in December, only 7.6% of the exports of wireless communication machines increased by 7.6%. Auto parts, general machinery, textiles, automobiles, petrochemicals, semiconductors, iron and steel products, flat panel displays, petroleum products, computers, appliances and ships declined by 4.2%, 7.3%, 7.7%, 8.8%, 14.6%, 17.1%, 23.2%, 23.3%, 25.6%, 25.6%, 25.6% and 23.3% respectively.

In the main export areas, only Vietnam's exports increased by 5.2%. U.S.A Exports from the European Union (EU), the ASEAN (ASEAN), Japan, the Middle East, mainland China and central and South America respectively declined by 4.7%, 7.6%, 11.1%, 13.1%, 14.9%, 16.7% and 35.3% (the monthly export figures for January December 31st were provisional values for customs statistics from December 1st to December 31st). In addition, imports of consumer goods, capital goods and raw materials declined by 9%, 17.1% and 27.6% respectively in December. Imports of coal, iron and steel, crude oil, petroleum products and gas were also reduced by 16.3%, 26%, 31.3%, 31.7% and 53.6% respectively in the 5 major import projects. The import data for single month were the provisional values of customs statistics from December 1st to December 20th.