South Korea's exports again shrank from a year earlier in July, posting an on-year drop for the seventh consecutive month, the government said Saturday.
The country's overall outbound shipments came to US$46.61 billion last month, down 3.3 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
However, the country's trade surplus jumped from $2.34 billion in July 2014 to $7.76 billion last month as imports plunged 15.3 percent on-year to $38.85 billion.
The drop in exports was largely attributed to the cut in global oil prices, as well as an oversupply of goods in the global market, which together pulled down prices of the country's key export items, including petroleum products and automobiles.
The ministry said the average price of products shipped overseas in July tumbled 10.3 percent, while the sheer volume of the shipments, in terms of weight, rose 7.8 percent.
In July, outbound shipments of petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel, plunged 28.1 percent on-year to $3.21 billion as their average price tumbled 38.7 percent to $73.1 per barrel last month from $119.2 billion a year earlier.
Shipments of petrochemical products also dropped 17.2 percent on-year to $3.56 billion.
Together, petroleum and petrochemical products used to account for over 18 percent of the country's overall exports. Last month, the combined proportion of the two key items dropped to a little over 14.5 percent.
The ministry noted the country's total exports, when excluding petroleum and petrochemical products, gained 1 percent on-year in July.
Shipments of semiconductors, the country's single largest export item, rose 6.6 percent on-year to $5.16 billion, while exports of ships spiked 57.4 percent to $3.48 billion, according to the ministry.
Exports of cars, on the other hand, shrank 6.2 percent on-year to $3.99 billion, with shipments of mobile communication devices, including cellphones, plunging 16 percent to $2.15 billion.
By country, shipments to the United States gained 1.8 percent on-year, while exports to Japan plunged 28 percent.
Shipments to China, the world's single largest importer of South Korean products, shrank 6.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the ministry.
The large drop in imports was also attributed to the cut in global prices of oil and energy.
In the first 20 days of July, the country's imports of raw materials, which account for more than half of its overall imports, plunged 28 percent from the same period last year, while imports of capital goods, such as machinery, gained 5.8 percent over the cited period, according to the ministry.
Imports of consumer goods slipped 2.2 percent on-year from July 1-20. (Yonhap)
