Amid COVID-19, March drug export hits record high

Exported USD 538.09 million of pharmaceuticals in one month, 51% hike from the previous month

Export to Japan and Germany skyrockets and narrows the trade balance gap

A monthly export volume of Korean pharmaceuticals has reached a record high in last March.

 

Sources view the COVID-19 outbreak has not affected the pharmaceutical production and export significantly.

 

According to the import and export statistics data published by Korea Customs Service (KCS), Korea has exported USD 538.09 million (approximately 660.2 billion won) worth of pharmaceuticals in March.

 

The Korean-made pharmaceutical export volume has gone up by 51.3 percent, compared to March 2019 at 356.52 million dollars (approximately 437.1 billion won).

 

Also, the volume increased by 51.3 percent as well only in a month from February (355.57 million dollars) to March 2020.

 

Korean pharmaceutical volume in March 2020 has marked the record high (Unit: USD 1,000) Source: KSS

In the same period, the import volume has also reached the highest in the history at 688.78 million dollars (approximately 845.1 billion won).

 

Compared to the year before, the volume was increased by 27.5 percent from 540.36 million dollars (approximately 663.0 billion won).

 

The huge surge in export volume has noticeably improved the pharmaceutical trade balance.

 

In March, Korea has made trade deficit of 120.69 million dollars.

 

Compared to the two months last year, the deficit figure was reduced by 18.0 percent.

 

However, the overall export volume in Korea has gone down by 0.7 percent from 47.03 billion dollars to 46.69 billion dollars in the same period.

 

This is why the pharmaceutical export volume has emerged as the highlight of the month.

 

The COVID-19 outbreak does not seem to have directly affected production or export of pharmaceuticals in Korea.

 

◆Export to Germany and Japan soars, when export to the U.S.

 

and China drops Sorting by country, the export to Germany and Japan has significantly increased.

 

On the other hand, the export to the U.S.

 

and China has diminished.

 

In March alone, the exports to Germany have generated 164.42 million dollars.

 

The figure has tripled from 48.19 million dollars in the year before.

 

More specifically, the exports to Germany exceeded last December’s record high volume at 112 million dollars.

 

The exports to Japan soared by 53.5 percent in March at 28.33 million dollars, compared to 18.45 million dollars last year.

 

Meanwhile, the volume exported to the U.S.

 

has been decreased by 16.3 percent than the previous year at 64.11 million dollars.

 

And the export volume to China in the same month has plunged by 26.0 percent from 24.44 million dollars last year to 18.58 million dollars this year.

 

Trend in export volume with major pharmaceutical trading countries (Unit: USD 1,000) Source: KSS)

The pharmaceutical ingredient distribution issues in China and India that the industry insiders were concerned about does not seem to have surfaced in the export statistics.

 

On the contrary, the Chinese and Indian-made pharmaceutical import volumes have rather increased than the year before.

 

90 percent of pharmaceutical active ingredients are currently imported from China and India.

 

Korea has been importing pharmaceuticals from China, which the volume has grown by 33.8 percent from 7.52 million dollars in March last year to 10.06 million dollars in March this year.

 

Comparing the figure in March to February at 7.53 million dollars, the volume has gone up by 33.5 percent.

 

The pharmaceutical import from India has reached 5.64 million dollars in March.

 

Compared to the year before at 4.91 million dollars, the volume was increased by 14.9 percent, but compared to Febraury at 1.95 million dollars, the March figure has skyrocketed by 189.5 percent.