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South Korea's exports of oil products grew 8.9 percent last year from a year
earlier thanks to local refiners' efforts to increase facility spending in order
to tap overseas markets, a trade association said Tuesday.
According
to data from the Korea Petrochemical Industry Association (KPIA), South Korea's
outbound shipments of oil products were temporarily tallied at US$56.2 billion
in 2012, outpacing a record high of $51.6 billion last year.
Exports
of oil products also accounted for 10.3 percent of the country's overall
exports, while oil products became the top-selling export item among
others.
In terms of the export value, oil products were trailed by
semiconductors with $50.4 billion, machinery with $48 billion and automobiles
with $47.2 billion.
The country's exports of oil products were on the
increase between 2006 and 2008, logging $20.4 billion in 2006, $24 billion in
2007 and $37.6 billion in 2008. The global financial crisis, however, forced the
country's oil products exports down to $23 billion in 2009.
Strong
exports of oil products stemmed from local refiners' steady efforts to diversify
their markets, turning their sights to overseas markets from domestic ones, the
association said.
Local refiners, including SK Innovation Co. and
S-Oil Corp, made an investment of 11 trillion won ($10.3 billion) in their
facilities over the past five years, it said.