The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of Korea announced on August 1 that Korea’s amount of exports in July recorded $45.84bn, up by 2.6% from a year ago while the amount of imports increased by 2.7% to $43.13bn during the same period, posting a trade surplus of  $2.71bn.
Exports rebounded from a deficit seen in June to an increasing trend within a month and the balance of trade has posted a surplus for 18 consecutive months.
Last month, IT products and ship showed a favorable tendency in exports and exports to China, the US and EU turned for the better.
Particularly, ship exports in July increased by 19.3% against a year ago, showing a growth for two consecutive months after having turned around to a growth in June. The ship exports continued a sharply decreasing movement for 11 months since July, 2012, however, turned around to an increasing rate of 7.2% in June against the same month a year ago.
Although shipbuilding industry has been undergoing recession since 2008, an expectation of recovery is growing as global new order intakes rose by 39.5% year-on-year. The governmental department explained over the increase seen in exports that expanded exports of high value-added special vessels, such as LNG carrier, large containership and etc., and its base effect contributed to the growth.
In July, 2012, ship exports plummeted by 56.6% from a year ago.  
MOTIE added that the prospect on exports in the second half of this year is bright since struggled exports to EU and ship exports are showing a two-month growth.