(ICIS) -- Higher prices allowed South Korea's petrochemical exports in August to increase 36.5% year on year to USD 5.32bn (EUR 3.94bn), bolstering hopes that the value of monthly shipments will remain strong through end-2011 despite a weakening of global demand, analysts said on Monday.
The US, the world's biggest economy, is in a fragile state, while the eurozone is deep in its debt troubles. Meanwhile, China - South Korea's main export market for petrochemicals - is beset with its own problems of reining in inflation, creating a credit crunch within the country.
Against the gloomy global economic backdrop, demand prospects for South Korea's exports do no look very promising.
South Korea's overall exports to the US in August fell by 5.9% in the first 20 days in August while total shipments to China rose by 16.5%, according to the country's Ministry Knowledge Economy (MKE). Meanwhile, export volumes of most of South Korea's major petrochemical products grew on a year-on-year basis in August, according to data from Korea International Trade Association (KITA) showed.