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Enhanced global steel trade monitoring
Steel Exports Report: South Korea
Background
South Korea was the world’s fourth-largest steel exporter in 2018. In year-to-date 2019 (through June), further referred to as YTD 2019, South Korea exported 14.9 million metric tons of steel — a 3 percent decrease from 15.3 million metric tons in YTD 2018. South Korea’s exports represented about 7 percent of all steel exported globally in 2017. The volume of South Korea’s 2018 steel exports was less than half of the world’s largest exporter, China, and just behind the second-largest exporter, Japan. In value terms, steel represented just 4.3 percent of the total amount of goods South Korea exported in 2018.
South Korea exports steel to more than 150 countries and territories. The ten countries labeled in the map below represent the top destinations for South Korea’s exports of steel, accounting for 72 percent of South Korea’s steel exports in 2018. The top 10 countries each received more than 900 thousand metric tons of South Korea’s steel exports.
Prior to 2009, South Korea had a trade deficit in steel products. The deficit peaked in 2008 at 8.2 million metric tons. Since 2009, imports began to fall and exports began to steadily increase. South Korea subsequently consistently had an annual steel trade surplus since mid 2010, with annual exports rising 49 percent and imports declining by 27 percent between 2009 and 2018. In YTD 2019, South Korea’s steel trade surplus was 6.1 million metric tons, down 21 percent from 7.7 million metric tons in YTD 2018.
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