By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
China is expected to surpass Japan as South Korea's biggest importing country this year, riding on the surging demand for steel and electronic parts.
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy Thursday made the prediction. It reported imports from China jumped a whopping 36.3 percent to $28.7 billion in the first half of the year, larger than $26.5 billion in Korea's imports of Japanese products.
Chinese goods accounted for about 17.6 percent of all South Korean imports, up from 15 percent a year earlier, while Japan made up 16.3 percent, down from 17.1 percent.
Officials said South Korea's imports of Chinese goods and services would surpass those of Japanese goods by the end of this year unless there is a sudden change in trade conditions.
``Even last year, imports from China reached $48.6 billion, just $3.3 billion shy of the $51.9 billion imported from Japan,'' a ministry official said.
Items from China include steel, electronic parts, textiles and consumer electronics. Steel imports almost doubled, while imports of electronic parts, machinery and nonferrous metals also posted sharp gains.
``Such increases are largely ascribed to the global price competitiveness of Chinese products and the resurgence of the South Korean economy,'' the official said.
South Korea's domestic consumption grew 4.1 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, while exports rose 14.7 percent in the first half.
A number of Korean firms have relocated their manufacturing bases to China in the past decade and a large chunk of the products, which enjoy cheap labor and raw materials, are shipped back to South Korea.
In the first half of this year alone, China remained South Korea's major export destination with $36.2 billion worth of goods shipped to the world's most populous country. Exports to Japan remained at about $12.2 billion due to the weak Japanese yen.
South Korea expects to surpass its annual export target of $360 billion this year, with imports topping $343 billion. The European Union and the United States were South Korea's second and third largest markets so far this year.