Manufacturing, mining sector shipments up 3.4 % in 2018: report

Shipments in South Korea's manufacturing and mining industry rose 3.4 percent in 2018 from a year earlier due mainly to growth in refined petroleum and petrochemical and chemical sectors, data showed Wednesday. 

Combined shipments by manufacturers and mining companies with more than 10 employees reached 1,567 trillion won ($1.3 trillion), up 52.1 trillion won from 2017, according to the data from Statistics Korea.  

The hike is attributable to a 22.8 percent gain in shipments from local refined petroleum businesses and a 9.5 percent on-year rise in petrochemical and chemical sectors in the one-year period, the agency said. 

he gains offset losses in the shipbuilding and automaking sectors, whose shipments fell 13.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, it said. 

The report also said that the average for shipments by manufacturing companies stood at 22.5 billion won last year, up 3.4 percent vis-a-vis 2017.  As of the end of 2018, there were 69,835 mining and manufacturing companies across South Korea employing 2.96 million people. (Yonhap)