The nation's trade volume has exceeded USD 1 trillion this year in record time.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Customs Service on Oct. 26 said exports reached USD 512.2 billion and imports USD 487.8 billion as trade surpassed USD 1 trillion.
USD 1 trillion is equivalent to the value of 50 million cars. The ministry said that if trade was done with cars only, it would be equivalent to exporting all vehicles registered in Korea (24.7 million units) and importing the same volume.
This is the first time for the nation's trade volume to surpass USD 1 trillion by October in a year since the government started compiling trade statistics in 1956. The new mark of 299 days is 21 days faster than the previous record of 320 set on Nov. 16, 2018.
Before this year, annual trade had exceeded USD 1 trillion seven times from 2011-14 and 2017-19.
Exports have driven the growth in trade, with their amount this year reaching USD 500 billion on Oct. 20.
By item through Oct. 20, semiconductors led overseas shipments with USD 98.3 billion, up 26.8%, followed by petrochemicals with USD 43.7 billion, up 56.7%, general machinery USD 41.6 billion, up 11.9%, and cars USD 36.4 billion, up 31.5%.
The ministry said, "If this trend continues, annual trade volume this year is expected to completely shake off the effects of COVID-19 and reach a record high."
Korea's highest trade volume in history came in 2018 with USD 1.14 trillion.
Source: Korea.net