Last year, imports and exports of pharmaceutical products showed mood swings due to vaccines.
Korea’s pharmaceutical products (HS30) exports amounted to $1.09708 billion, exceeding $1 billion for the first time, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.
This is an increase of 12.2% from $970.79 million in the same period last year when it surpassed $900 million unprecedentedly.
Monthly exports of pharmaceutical products last year peaked at $850.93 million in March, then declined to $394.33 million in April, and locked at the $600 million mark until November.
The vaccines for human use (HS300220) played a major role in the significant increase in pharmaceutical products exports in December. In December 2021, the monthly vaccine exports reached $277.83 million.
The figure jumped more than 2000% than the same period last year, and it is the first time that the monthly exports of vaccines went above $100 million.
Until November of last year, vaccines accounted for only 3.3% of pharmaceutical products exports, but in December it surpassed 25%.
However, due to the impact of vaccines, Korea’s pharmaceutical products trade deficit has risen sharply.
This annual pharmaceutical products deficit last year was $1.996 billion, an increase of more than 80% from 2020, of which $1.836 billion, or 92%, was generated from vaccines.
Unlike last year, vaccines accounted for only 6.1% of annual exports and 22.6% of imports, but their share in the deficit was absolute.
Since June last year, when COVID-19 vaccination began seriously, Korea’s vaccine imports have exceeded $100 million per month.
Vaccines imports amounted to $682.89 million in September and slightly decreased from $344.71 million in October to $139.93 million in November but surged to $350.56 million again in December.
As vaccines exports increased significantly in December, the deficit narrowed to less than $100 million in six months since June.
As imports of vaccines rose, the total imports of pharmaceutical products also escalated dramatically. They remained at $700 million until June, but surpassed $800 million in July, followed by $900 million in August, and soared to $1.3 billion in September.
Following $1.07 billion in October, it dropped to $886.6 million in November, but increased to $1.13 billion in December and returned to the $1 billion mark.
Annual imports of pharmaceutical products amounted to $10.4 billion as a result, a 30.5% increase over the same period last year, exceeding the $10 billion mark for the first time.
Korea’s pharmaceutical products competitiveness seems to have strengthened significantly in the global market, considering that most of the deficits occurred in vaccines and the deficit in the pre-COVID-19 trade balance exceeded $3 billion for the second consecutive year.
