Slowing South Korean export growth raises red flag on global trade

Bloomberg

A drop in South Korean exports to China and another weak figure for semiconductor shipments add to concerns over the strength of global trade amid the economic conflict between Washington and Beijing.
Preliminary trade data for the first 20 days of November showed a 4.3 percent slip in exports to China, the first fall outside holiday-affected months since late 2016. The drop follows seven-straight months of growth above 20 percent in the early readings.
A slowdown in the expansion of chip exports to 3.5 percent compares with gains of at least 35 percent in each of the first nine months of 2018, suggesting a rapid softening of the global tech sector, for which Korea is a key supplier.
To-be-sure, preliminary export data hasn’t tallied as accurately with final monthly figures this year as previously, but it is still cause for concern. Overall exports for the first
20 days of November rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier.
“If full-month figures also prove to be ugly, then it indicates China’s economy has been in a very bad shape since November and that’s worrisome,” said Stephen Lee, an economist at Meritz Securities Co. in Seoul.