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Domestic automotive sales and production fell in September
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Oct 7 that the domestic automotive sales fell 13.8 percent to 128,674 units in September compared with the same period last year, with the end of the special consumption tax cut. Local car production also dropped 22.7 percent to 258,026 units last month from a year ago mainly due to the prolonged walkout of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the county’s top two automakers. Affected by the shrinking car production, car export date2016-10-07
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Korea's fresh FDI hits new record high in first 9 months of 2016
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Oct 4 that foreign direct investment newly pledged in the first nine months of this year has reached a record high of USD 15.05 billion, a 13.4 percent climb from $13.27 billion a year ago. It marked the largest amount of FDI pledged in history for a nine-month period, surpassing the earlier record of $14.8 billion tallied over the same period in 2014. For the third quarter alone, new FDI pledges also gained 2.1 percent on-year to a date2016-10-04
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Korean exports fall 5.9% in September
Partial strikes at major automobile companies including Hyundai Motor has negatively affected the exports by 79,000 units of cars. As a result, car exports dived 24 percent compared to the same month last year, to $ 1.14 billion. Wireless device exports, such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy note 7, plunged as well by 27.9 percent to $ 0.37 billion. The fall of four major exports, which consists of wireless devices, cars, ships and petrochemicals, led the plunge of total monthly export. The four key industries together are responsible for $ 2.5 billion of export decrease, which amounts to 93.9 percent. Product-wise, year-on-year statistics fell but major export products shown signs of recovery regardless of walkouts in automobile industry and fewer working days. Semiconductors enjoyed renewed demand since September 2015, thanks to global launching of new smartphones and smartphone products and month-on-month unit price increase. However last year's record of the same month was the second highest in its history, thus outbound shipment of semiconductors consequently suffered a slight on-year fall of 2.6 percent in comparison. Computers and auto parts have also shown higher international demand with 13.3 percent and 3.5 percent export increase, respectively. Regionally, outbound shipments to Vietnam and Japan remained on the positive terrain with 16.9 percent and 6.3 percent climb. But exports bound to China sank 9.1 percent as well as those to U.S., 6.1 percent, and the EU, 14.5 percent. date2016-10-01
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Korea unveils policy direction to strengthen competitiveness of steel and petrochemical industries
South Korean economic ministries, including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, unveiled on Friday their coordinated plans to strengthen the competitiveness of steel and petrochemical industries, both of which face an oversupply issue. A policy direction to sharpen an edge of the troubled shipping and shipbuilding is expected to be announced in October. To maintain global demand for Korean steel and petrochemical products, the government will encourage and help reduce date2016-09-30
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'Korea Sale FESTA' begins on September 29
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on September 21 that 'Korea Sale FESTA', the country's biggest shopping festival, will begin on Sept 29 and last until Oct 31. Together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry has developed the annual national shopping and cultural festival for bargain-hungry Korean consumers and foreign visitors since the beginning of this year with aims of boosting domestic consumption in slump an date2016-09-23
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Korea wins WTO case against the US anti-dumping duties on Korean washers
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a press release on Sept 8 that the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement panel ruled in favor of Korea over the country's case against United States' anti-dumping duties imposed on Korean washing machines on September 7, saying the United States' targeted dumping and zeroing methods were in violation of the WTO agreement. The dispute over Korean washers began back in August 2013 when Korea filed a complaint ag date2016-09-08
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South Korean exports rebound in August
Exports: $ 40.1 Billion; Imports: $ 34.8 Billion; Trade Surplus: $ 5.3 Billion The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced Wednesday that South Korea’s year-on-year exports rebounded in August, putting an end to the 18-straight-month fall. The country’s outbound shipments rose 2.6 percent to $ 40.1 billion last month from the same period a year ago mainly because of the extended working days. This was the first positive export growth since date2016-09-01
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Korean exports in July post USD 41 billion
Exports: $41.0 billion; Imports: $33.3 billion; Trade Surplus: $7.8 billion The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that South Korea’s exports fell 10.2 percent to $41.0 billion and imports decreased by 14.0 percent to $33.3 billion in July from a year earlier, resulting in a trade surplus, for the 54th consecutive month, of $ 7.8 billion. Exports declined at a faster rate in July due to a reduced number of work days (-1.5 days) and fewer ship e date2016-08-03