Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Vietnam, Saudi picked as promising export markets
By Lee Hyo-sik
Korea’s outbound shipments have stayed sluggish this year, hit by a slowdown in China, Russia and other large emerging economies, which import less finished and intermediate industrial goods from Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
However, exports to Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and some other rapidly-growing nations have jumped by double digits, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Monday, urging local exporters to more actively target these markets.
The country’s shipments to Vietnam jumped 30.2 percent in the first eight months of the year from the same period last year. Exports to Saudi Arabia rose 22 percent, followed by Morocco at 19.4 percent, the Czech Republic at 16.7 percent and Mexico at 14.1 percent. Iran, Italy, Egypt, Spain and Qatar bought more goods from Korea this year than they did last year.
The nation’s overall outbound shipments dropped 6.1 percent during the January to August period.
“Local exporters should make inroads into these ten countries, which have posted relatively robust economic growth,” a KOTRA spokesman said.
Qatar is projected to expand 7.3 percent, followed by Vietnam at 6.3 percent and Morocco at 4.5 percent.
“The strong growth has propelled these nations to import more goods from Korea and other nations. Korean firms must target the economies that exceed average global growth,” he said.
Korean manufacturers, which have established plants in Vietnam, Mexico, the Czech Republic and other emerging economies, ship a wide range of industrial parts and intermediate goods to their overseas production facilities from Korea.
This has increased the nation’s outbound shipments to these countries, KOTRA said.
“Vietnam and several other countries, which import more from Korea, have a large presence of Korean manufacturing firms. We expect that shipments to these countries will continue to expand as more businesses head overseas,” the spokesman said.
The state trade promotion agency also said, despite falling oil prices, that Saudi Arabia and Qatar have placed large construction orders for industrial plants and social infrastructure, attracting many Korean builders.
“Many builders and other local companies conduct business in the two Middle East nations. We believe that business opportunities will continue to expand there,” the spokesman said. “The rising recognition of made-in-Korea consumer products in Italy, Spain and other European counties, coupled with the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement, has boosted Korean exports to the world’s largest economic bloc.”