By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter




South Korea’s merchandise trade with China topped $100 billion in 2005 for the first time ever.
The Korea Customs Service said Thursday combined exports and imports to and from China reached $100.6 billion. China maintained its status as Korea’s single biggest export market by absorbing $62 billion worth of Korean goods.

The United States is Korea’s second-largest export market. The U.S. imported a total of $41.4 billion worth of products from Korea last year. The U.S. was trailed by Japan ($24.1 billion), Hong Kong ($15.5 billion) and Taiwan ($10.9).

By customs cleared imports, Japan was the largest exporter to Korea. Korea’s imports from Japan totaled $48.4 billion in 2005.

Korea’s annual bilateral trade deficit with Japan remained constant at $24.3 billion in 2005, similar to the 2004 $24.4 billion deficit.

China exported $38.6 billion worth of merchandise to Korea. The U.S. ranked third with exports to Korea reaching $30.5 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia ($16.2 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($10 billion).

China emerged as Korea’s biggest export market since 2003 and second-biggest exporter to Korea since 2004. The Middle Kingdom is also the only single market that Korea reaps more than $20 billion in trade surplus.

Korea’s trade surplus with China snowballed from $13.2 billion in 2003 to $20.2 billion in 2004 and $23.4 billion last year.

With the steep rise in international oil prices, major petroleum exporting countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait moved up the ladder to join the top 10 list of exporters to Korea.

Korea’s gross annual trade amounted to $545.7 billion last year, setting a new high. Exports totaled $284.6 billion with imports consisting of the remaining $261.1 billion.

Korea’s top 10 export markets accounted for 65.5 percent of Korea’s exports in 2005 while the 10 biggest exporters to Korea made up 71.1 percent of Korea’s gross imports.

``Korea’s reliance on top 10 flagship export items remains high. The top 10 export items made up 60 percent of Korea’s total exports in 2005, up from 53.7 percent in 2001,’’ said Korea Customs Service official Min Hee.

Korea’s top 10 export items _ semiconductors, automobiles, wireless telecom equipment, maritime structures, petroleum products, computers, synthetic resin, steel plates, car parts and audiovisual equipment _ made up 60 percent of Korea’s exports in 2005.

Semiconductors and automobiles made up more than 20 percent of Korea’s exports last year.

Korea’s crude oil import costs jumped more than 40 percent in 2005 from the previous year while crude oil import volumes only inched up just 1.9 percent in the same period.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday that Korea’s exports to China are forecast to hit $74 billion in 2006, up more than 20 percent from 2005, largely attributed to brisk China-bound shipments of key export items such as microchips, mobile phones and flat panels.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr