The 53rd Trade Day commemoration event took place at the Coex Convention Center on Monday, with more than 1,400 attendants, to encourage business people and companies suffering grim exports condition this year. 

The ceremony, co-hosted by the Korea International Trade Association and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, honored 760 businesses people, including Hyundai Oilbank Co. Chairman Moon Jong-bak, for their efforts to promote exports. A total of 1,209 companies received the Tower of Export award for achieving new export milestones, which starting from $1 million in export value.

This year’s top award was bestowed on Hanwha Total Petrochemical, which achieved more than $5 billion in exports. Korea Aerospace Industries, Hyundai Dymos and Taekwang Industry each received an award for breaking the $1 billion mark for the first time.

But the number of companies that received the Tower of Export awards was the lowest since 2004, when 1,191 won the award. This year represented a huge drop from last year’s 1,328 companies.

For the first time since 2002, no company received an award for exceeding $10 billion in export value. In 2014, Samsung Electronics was awarded the Tower of Export for exceeding $75 billion in exports and in 2015, SK Hynix received it for exceeding $15 billion.

During the opening remarks at the ceremony, KITA Chairman Kim In-ho said, “We cannot expect high growth from exports as we have in the past, and we need to find new growth models.”

Amid slow demand from overseas, this year’s export figures have been sluggish, with an 8 percent on-year decline in the first 10 months. For the second year in a row, Asia‘s fourth-largest economy is unlikely to accomplish $1 trillion in outbound shipments. The country achieved $1 trillion in exports for four consecutive years after becoming just the ninth country in the world to exceed the $1 trillion milestone in 2011.

“Boosting total exports is important but we need to focus on overcoming structural issues,” Kim noted.

In 2016, there have been some improvements in quality, according to KITA, as exports of high value-added items such as organic light-emitting diodes, lithium batteries, solid-state drives and consumer goods like cosmetics and medicines grew. The export markets have diversified with less reliance on China and the portion of small and medium-sized companies has grown in total exports, it said.

Trade Day was designated in 1964 to celebrate reaching $100 million in annual exports.


By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)