S.Korea: A sunny Q4 for chips and ships

The local semiconductor and shipbuilding industries may expect a sunny fourth quarter, but the automobile, construction and machinery sectors should prepare for a few more gloomy months, according to a report by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday. The business lobby predicted that Korea’s semiconductor industry would grab a higher global market share in the final three months of the year, increasing the total volume of its exports to $9 billion, an increase of 48.7 percent from the same quarter last year.
Amid continuing rises in the price of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, local semiconductor firms will likely see greater revenue thanks to a bump in worldwide demand for chips used in personal computers and cellular phones.
Korean shipbuilders also looked promising, the KCCI said, with that sector’s exports predicted to see an increase of 18.3-percent on-year to $15.4 billion.
On the other hand, the chamber foresaw more stormy days for the country’s auto sector, especially as individual government tax benefits that allow car owners to trade in their older cars to buy new ones come to an end.
In the second quarter of this year, a total of 360,000 locally-made vehicles were sold in Korea, but that number is expected to drop to 260,000 in the fourth quarter, which would be a 0.7-percent decline compared with last year.
The KCCI also blamed oil prices, which remain high.
Automobile exports by Korean carmakers will also drop 33.7 percent to 470,000 cars, the group wrote.
The local construction industry showed a 14.8 percent increase in the number of new orders received in the third quarter this year, but in the fourth quarter the KCCI expects that figure will drop 4.5 percent on-year to 42 trillion won in orders.
The number of new public construction orders will increase 7.5 percent, with large-scale projects such as the Honam railroad line and the four river project getting underway.
Greater mortgage restrictions in the Seoul metropolitan area will hurt the overall private construction sector, however, the KCCI wrote.