SeoulMarkets · tag
china
5 stories tagged “china”, each from official Korean data with its source and timestamp.
Korea's leading indicator is the highest of four Asian economies we track. China's is the only one below trend.
OECD composite leading indicators for Korea, Japan, India and China through August 2026. Korea's has risen every month for 20 months running; China's has fallen every month for 19. Not a forecast — a reading of where each series sits now.
Korea's air cargo grew 10% in two years. China and Japan grew 3x that
Freight arriving in Korea from China rose 23.8% and from Japan 28.3% between July 2024 and July 2026, while total air cargo grew only 10.0%. The catch-all 'rest of Asia' bucket, still the largest single source, barely moved and lost share.
China's Korea-bound air traffic jumped 48% in two years
Passengers arriving in Korea from China rose 47.7% from July 2024 to July 2026, while flights on that route rose only 21.4% — planes are fuller, not just more frequent. Middle East and Oceania traffic fell over the same year.
South Korea's biggest export and import partners: two giants, one supplier
South Korea's biggest trading partners: its top export markets, the US and China, are nearly tied near 20% each, but its single biggest supplier is China alone — a quarter of all imports. Four partners are half the trade. Not advice.
China is Korea's biggest trade partner, but almost none of its surplus
China is Korea's biggest partner both ways — and the two nearly cancel. Its balance is about 5% of the national surplus on a fifth of all trade. The surplus is earned from the US, Vietnam and Taiwan; the deficits are oil, gas and machinery.