T : +82-31-783-6130/1
F : +82-31-783-6132
hwangnco@hwangnco.com
www.hwangnco.com
KOREA REPORT - FEBRUARY, 2021.
TOPICS.
SKorea began its AstraZeneca
vaccination campaign starting 26th at 1,915 public
health center and nursing homes and Pfizer's vaccine from 27th, with medical
workers getting the jab first. Health officials said 20,322 people across the
country had received their first shots of the vaccines as of 27th, which
account for 0.039% of country's population of 52 mil. The country hopes to
attain herd immunity by Nov.
Iran
said on 2nd it has allowed the crew of SKorean oil tanker it seized to leave
the country. MT Hankuk Chemi had 20 sailors,
including five Koreans, aboard when it was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolution
Guards Corps for alleged oil pollution on Jan 4th. The release comes in a
"humanitarian move" by Tehran following a request from SKorean
government. Observers said the vessel's seizure could be linked to Iran's anger
over its assets frozen in SKorea due to US sanctions on the regime.
SKorea registered trade surplus of $2.71
mil in Feb, tenth
consecutive month of surplus, down 33.9% on-year. Exports rose 9.5% on-year to
$ 44.8 bil, thanks to chip and car shipments and recovery in business sentiment
as covid-19 vaccination spreads. Imports grew 13.9% on-year to $ 42.1 bil. Chip
shipments increased 13.2% in Feb, while vehicle sales overseas soared 47%
on-year.
Korean
shipbuilders are expected to undergo a temporary shortage of order backlogs in
second half of the year, as new orders of ships last year, which
are slated to be delivered by 2022, were very deficient, KOEXIM Bank Overseas
Economic Research Institute said on 2nd. In addition, sharp rise in local
shipbuilders' new orders in Oct-Dec period will not make up for the decline in
order backlogs in second half of this year, as most of them will be completed
by 2023. Local shipbuilders' order backlogs stood at 22.16 mil cgt last year,
down 5% on-year, or 1.09 mil cgt, according to Clarkson Research Service.
Global new orders of ships reached 19.2 mil cgt last year, down 34% compared
with 29.1 mil cgt in 2019. New orders of ships won by Korean shipbuilders stood
at 8.2 mil cgt last year, down 16.5% from 9.8 mil cgt in 2019. Global new
orders are expected to come to 30 mil cgt this year, up 57% on-year, due to
soaring demand for new ships to replace old ships, as toughed environmental
regulations are predicted to take effect in 2023.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTACHMENT: Korea Report - February 2021 (PDF FILE)
Please let us know if you have difficulty opening the file.