A view of a district dense with office buildings in Seoul [Herald DB]
A view of a district dense with office buildings in Seoul [Herald DB]

South Korean export companies have sharply increased their dollar sales compared with last year, new data shows.

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Nam-jun — who represents Incheon's Gyeyang-eul district and sits on the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee — analyzed Bank of Korea data showing that non-financial private firms sold $263.59 billion in spot and forward foreign exchange contracts in the second quarter of this year. That marks a 71.5 percent increase from $153.67 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Dollar purchases by the same firms also rose over the period, climbing 23.9 percent from $124.2 billion to $153.94 billion, though the growth in sales far outpaced that of purchases.

As a result, net selling — the difference between sales and purchases — surged nearly fourfold, from $29.47 billion in the second quarter of last year to $109.65 billion in the second quarter of this year. Under Bank of Korea statistics, non-financial private firms refers to companies excluding financial institutions and public enterprises; the figures cover both spot and forward transactions.

In the first quarter of this year, firms sold $201.52 billion while purchasing $124.27 billion. On a cumulative first-half basis, total sales reached $465.11 billion against purchases of $278.21 billion, putting net selling at $186.9 billion — more than three times the $58.49 billion recorded in the first half of last year.

The expansion in corporate dollar selling has come as the sharp rise in the won-dollar exchange rate this year pushed foreign exchange market stability to the top of the policy agenda.

Corporate dollar selling continued at a substantial pace into the third quarter. The won strengthened past the 1,500-per-dollar mark on July 8 for the first time in about a month, then advanced below 1,400 on Wednesday. During trading on Friday, it touched 1,380.3 won per dollar — the lowest intraday level since Sept. 18 last year, when it reached 1,380.0 won during the session.

"The recent stabilization of the won-dollar exchange rate owes much not only to the efforts of foreign exchange authorities but also to the expanded dollar supply from export companies in semiconductors and other sectors," Kim said. "We must focus on institutional support to sustain a virtuous economic cycle — one in which AI and semiconductor export earnings bring in dollars to stabilize the exchange rate, which in turn feeds back into domestic investment through AI and semiconductor mega-projects."


bigroot@heraldcorp.com