Shipbuilding export amounts $22.5 billion for 1st half

Korea's shipbuilding exports for the first half increased 13% as compared with the corresponding period of last year. The industry marked the highest growth among 13 items, including computers, semiconductors, wireless communications equipment, petrochemicals, and general machinery.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the shipbuilding export for the first half (from January to June, 2015) marked $22.51 billion, which rose 13% from $19.97 billion in the same period, 2014. Especially, the delivery of high-valued ocean platforms such as FPSO (Floating Production Storage Offloading) was concentrated in the 1st quarter of the year. 

For monthly performance of Korean exports, it registered negative growth for last three months. As overall exports downturned into negative growth in April, it repeated till the past June.

Korea's overall exports for the 1st half recorded $269 billion, which decreased 5% compared with the same half of last year. Imports recorded $222 billion, which dropped 16%.

Korea's main export items, such as automobiles and steel, illustrated the weak performance of the last 6 months. Also, petroleum products and petrochemicals decreased $2.3 billion for the monthly average with reductions of export unit cost affected by the slide in oil prices.

Regarding the 1st half import, raw materials, such as crude oil, gas, petroleum products, and steel, were largely reduced by the effect of unit prices falling. External factors, such as sliding oil prices, Yen and Euro slack, and China's import demand slowdown, negatively affected both imports and exports.

However, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's outlook on the semiconductor, computer and general machinery industries is bright for the 2nd half. It expects the semiconductor industry to grow with new applications in the market, such as cloud services and SSDs (Solid State Drives) for laptops.

On the other hand, the ministry's view for home appliances, display devices, steel products, petroleum products and petrochemicals was pessimistic for the 2nd half. Analysts forecast that steel prices will decrease due to an oversupply in the global market, and falling oil price will lead to unit price reductions. Shipbuilding is expected to show a blunt export performance in the 2nd half.

< Korea Shipping Gazette >