Roundup: S. Korea's trade surplus hits record high despite weak exports

South Korea's trade surplus hit a new record high in November as imports reduced at a faster pace than exports, a government report showed Tuesday.

Trade surplus reached 10.36 billion U.S. dollars in November, surpassing the previous high of 9.9 billion dollars in June, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The trade balance stayed in the black for 46 months in a row since February 2012 as imports fell at a faster clip than exports, indicating a so-called "recession-type" surplus trend.

During the January-November period, the surplus amounted to 83.2 billion dollars, up from 41.6 billion dollars in the same period of last year.

Exports, which make up about half of the economy, dipped 4.7 percent from a year earlier to 44.43 billion dollars in November. It was up from a 15.9 percent reduction in October, but remained in negative territory.

The slower fall in exports came as the shipbuilding sector showed recovery. Ship exports surged 133.7 percent in November thanks to the winning of offshore plant orders, after plunging 73.7 percent in October.

"Three offshore drill ships were delivered late in the month. This alone contributed to a 10 percentage point gain to a total 4.7 percent decline in November exports," Kwon Young-Sun, a Hong Kong-based economist in Nomura, said in a report.

"Excluding shipbuilding, exports would have tumbled by 15 percent," Kwon said, noting that the underlying export momentum is weakening due to lower global demand.

Imports tumbled 17.6 percent on-year to 34.07 billion dollars in November. Both exports and imports kept their downward trend for 11 straight months.

Cheaper crude oil contributed mainly to the faster decline in imports than exports, resulting in the record trade surplus, the trade ministry said.

The combined trade volume, including exports and imports, reached 886 billion dollars for the first 11 months of this year. South Korea had seen its trade volume top 1 trillion dollars for four years through 2014, but this year is expected to be hard to see the surpassing of the 1 trillion-dollar mark.

In terms of volume, exports reduced 0.2 percent on-year in November, indicating the souring global demand even after excluding the effect of lower export prices caused by cheaper oil products.

By item, exports of telecommunication devices such as smartphone soared 23.6 percent in November from a year earlier, but shipments of oil products and petrochemicals plunged 36.3 percent and 24.0 percent each last month.

Dubai crude, South Korea's benchmark, averaged 41.6 dollars per barrel in November, down 46 percent from the same month of last year.

Auto exports declined 7.6 percent on weak demand from emerging markets. Exports of steel products, chips and display panels slumped 26.6 percent, 9.6 percent and 18.3 percent each due to lower product prices.

Shipments of computers and general machinery decreased 19.6 percent and 13.7 percent each on a yearly basis, with those for textiles and consumer electronics dropping 10.7 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

South Korea's exports to China, the country's largest trading partner, reduced 6.8 percent in November, and those to the United States tumbled 12.4 percent.

Exports to the European Union (EU) surged 52.5 percent in November after falling 12.5 percent in October. Those to Vietnam increased 12.6 percent, keeping a double-digit growth trend. Enditem