The Korea International Trade Association announced on March 14 that 1,798 export items of China showed the highest market share in the world in 2020 and the numbers of Germany, the United States, Italy, Japan and India are 668, 479, 201, 154 and 148, respectively. South Korea came in 10th for two years in a row by increasing its number from 71 to 77. The 77 export items include 17 new ones, while 11 dropped out in 2020. The 77 include 29 chemical products and 20 steel and nonferrous metal products. The 17 include laser equipment and polarizer plates for use in LCD panels. In 2020, the respective exports were US$2.24 billion and US$2.47 billion.
“South Korea was the global number one and China was the runner-up when it comes to 10 items, the 10 include tankers and cold-rolled steel sheets, and South Korea’s global market share was at least 10 percentage points higher than China’s when it comes to the two,” the association explained, adding, “The 11 that dropped out include memory chips, and yet this has nothing to do with product competitiveness and this was because foreign-invested companies in China increased their production and exports.” According to the association, South Korea was the front-runner and Japan was the runner-up in 16 items, and their global market share gap in 2020 was less than 5 percentage points in seven. “The ratio, 43.8 percent, rose about 10 percentage points from four out of 12, which means their competition in the global export market intensified in 2020,” it went on to say, continuing, “As for chemical, steel and nonferrous metal products, China, the United States, German and Japan are poised to catch up and South Korea needs to increase its R&D efforts.”