Vietnam emerges as South Korea's No. 3 trading partner

Vietnam will finish this year as South Korea's No. 3 trading partner and the country with which the latter has the largest trade surplus, a study has shown.

The Federation of Korean Industries on Wednesday released an analysis on trade between the two countries from 1992, when they formed diplomatic ties, to last year to mark the 30th anniversary of bilateral relations.

The report said Korea has kept a trade surplus with Vietnam since posting $300 million in 1992. This year, the 30th anniversary of ties, the black figure reached $31.3 billion, surpassing the surplus with the US of $25.4 billion as the highest among Korea's trading partners.

Between January and November this year, bilateral trade with Vietnam reached $81.1 billion, meaning the Southeast Asian country for the year is expected to surpass Japan with $78.4 billion as Korea's No. 3 trading partner.

Since forming ties three decades ago, both countries have seen bilateral trade jump 161 times from $500 million in 1992 to $80.7 billion last year.

Over the same period, Korea's exports jumped 8.4 times and imports 7.5 times, while the figures for Vietnam were 142 and 240, respectively.

Since the establishment of bilateral ties, semiconductors have had the highest cumulative export value, followed by flat panel displays and sensors, wireless communication devices, petroleum products and synthetic resin.

The leading trade items in 1992 were artificial long-fiber fabrics, petroleum products, complex fertilizers, textiles and chemical machinery but those last year comprised semiconductors, flat panel displays and sensors, and wireless communication devices.

From 2019 through last year, chips saw growth of 32%, flat panel displays and sensors 23.3%, and wireless communication devices 37.2%.

Among imports, the item with the highest cumulative value was wireless communication equipment, followed by clothing, personal accessories, computers, and flat panel displays and sensors.

Write to So-Hyeon Kim at alpha@hankyung.com