S.Korea: 11th in global export market for top-ranked items

South Korea ranks 11th in global export market shares with 69 top-ranked items -- reaching an all-time high

In 2019, South Korean products ranked 11th in the global export market with some 69 items holding No. 1 market share. Korea’s ranking jumped from 13th place in 2018 to 11th place in 2019, with the number of top-ranked items growing from 62 items in 2018 to 69 items in 2019. It’s the best performance since 2002 when the survey first began. The top-ranked items are based on the six-digit HS Codes and the export amount of 5,204 items.

Source: Report issued by the Korea International Trade Association in March 2021

As of 2019, China maintained its lead for five years in a row with 1,759 items accounting for No. 1 market share in the global export market, followed by Germany and the US.

Among the top-ranked 69 items, chemicals (27 items) were in the lead, followed by steel and non-ferrous metals (18 items) -- altogether accounting for 65.2 percent.

Some 1,359 items from South Korea ranked in the top 10 in the global export market, up by 9 items from the previous year.

Some 36 items from South Korea have maintained their lead in the global export market for five straight years, with chemicals accounting for 50 percent.

Of Korea’s 69 top-ranked items, Japan, the US, China and Germany had the second-highest market share for 39 items. In particular, Japan is ranked second in 12 items, holding the largest number of items competing with Korea among major countries.

Since 2019, some 16 items have newly emerged as top-ranked items in the global export market. Among them, SSDs have been drawing much attention. Also, steel and non-ferrous metals have shown the sharpest growth trend.