News
Containerized shipments traded between South Korea and China totaled 2,145,160 TEUs, in 2009, representing a decrease of 12 percent from a year earlier.
In breakdown, those from South Korea to China improved 7.9 percent to 996,064 TEUs, but those from China to South Korea suffered a double-digit decline of 24.2 percent to 1,149,906 TEUs.
As its exports to China of semiconductors, liquid crystal-related products and other electronic parts and components as well as parts and components for transport machinery swelled dramatically last year, South Korea’s trade surplus with China reached US$33.8 billion, a notable rise of 150 percent from the previous calendar year.
Meanwhile, container movement between Japan and South Korea plunged around 10 percent in both directions, with imports from South Korea to Japan going down 10.6 percent to 679,212 TEUs while exports to South Korea had suffered a chronic deficit in trade with Japan.
However, in 2009, imports into Japan of agricultural products and wireless telecommunication devices, among other items, improved substantially, while Japan’s exports of semiconductor fabrication equipment, home appliances and electronic products plunged more than 30 percent in total.
As a consequence, South Korea’s trade deficit with Japan improved by 19 percent to $26.4 billion.
