Roundup: S. Korea's trade surplus hits record high on imports drop

South Korea's trade surplus hit the record monthly high last month as imports dropped at a faster pace than exports, a government report showed Wednesday.

Trade surplus was 10.243 billion U.S. dollars in June, marking the highest in the country's history, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The trade balance stayed in black for 41 months since February 2012.

Exports, which account for about half of the economy, fell 1.8 percent from a year earlier to 46.947 billion dollars in June. Imports tumbled 13.6 percent to 36.704 billion dollars.

Both exports and imports declined for six straight months, but sharper fall in imports than exports resulted in the record-high trade surplus.

The falling pace slowed compared with the previous month when exports and imports retreated 10.9 percent and 15.3 percent respectively.

Exports of telecommunication devices, such as smartphones, jumped 17.9 percent on the back of launches of new devices, such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S6 Edge, and shipments of steels and autos climbed 7.6 percent and 6.5 percent each.

Reduction in exports of oil and petrochemical products slowed thanks to higher crude oil prices, but chip exports rose at a slower pace on low product prices, with shipments of ships and consumer electronics posting a double-digit decline.

Exports to the United States advanced 10.9 percent in May from a year ago, but those to Japan sank 12.7 percent on continued trend of the weak Japanese yen. Shipments to China and Vietnam rose 0.8 percent and 42.6 percent each.

Imports drop in May was attributable to raw material imports, which tumbled 32.4 percent last month. Imports of capital and consumer goods gained 8.3 percent and 5.8 percent respectively.

For the first six months of this year, trade surplus amounted to 46.7 billion dollars, much higher than a 19.9-billion-dollar surplus in the same period of last year.

Exports slid 5 percent from a year earlier to 269 billion dollars in the first half, and imports tumbled at a faster pace of 15.6 percent to 222.3 billion dollars.

During the first half of this year, imports declined at a faster clip than exports on cheaper oil. Dubai crude, South Korea' s benchmark, averaged 56.3 dollars per barrel in the first half, down 46.5 percent from the same period of last year.

The ministry said that exports to China, South Korea's largest trading partner, showed a downward picture in the first half as the world's No.2 economy changed its growth strategy from exports- intensive to domestic demand-oriented.

South Korea's exports to Japan kept a downward trend in the first half as the Japanese yen depreciated against the U.S. dollar.

The ministry forecast that exports of cars and smartphones could be improved in the second half due to launches of new models, but it cited negative factors such as the South Korean currency's appreciation against the dollar, slower exports to China and economic uncertainties in Europe. Endi