S. Korea's exports plummet by 10.3% in 2019

South Korea exported $541.2 billion worth of goods in 2019, down 10.3 percent from 2018 the previous year due to sluggish overseas demand for semiconductors, data from Statistics Korea and the Korea Customs Service revealed.

Large companies in South Korea suffered bigger declines than smaller businesses.

Combined exports of 857 large South Korean firms plunged 13.5 percent on-year to $347.8 billion last year, the sharpest annualized drop since data tracking started in 2015.

Meanwhile, overseas shipments of South Korea's midsized firms' slid 4.6 percent in 2019 from a year earlier. Those of small companies declined 3.5 percent.

The top 100 firms in terms of overseas shipment accounted for 63.7 percent of South Korea's total exports, down 2.7 percentage points from 2018 and the lowest ratio since 2010.

Exports by the country's 10 leading companies accounted for 34.6 percent of the total last year, which was the least in three years.

The country's exports of electric and electronic products, including chips, plunged 17.4 percent on-year, while those of petrochemicals plummeted 7.7 percent.

Large firms' exports to China dropped 20.5 percent due to decreased Chinese demand for South Korean semiconductors.

There were 97,418 exporting companies in South Korea last year, up 1.2 percent from 2018.

Meanwhile, South Korea's imports in 2019 dropped by 6.4 percent to $495.5 billion from a year earlier while the number of importers jumped 4.2 percent to 192,791.