Ship is the main export of Korea. It is natural that Koreans are proud of their ship, saying that it is the best in the world. Well, then what is the second leading export? It’s Oil. People say that Korea has no oil, but it has petroleum companies which sell half of their products abroad.
No Oil Nation Exports Oil!
The type of the oil that Korea imports from other oil-producing countries is crude oil. The crude oil is used to make a large number of other fuels and ingredients of consumer products. Firstly put crude oil into big tank and boil up. Crude oil becomes gas and it goes up through the chimney. The substances of low boiling point and low molecular weight go up easily but the others don’t.
If the crude oil substance gets frozen, we can get liquid substance. We call this ‘fractional distillation’. The main ingredient of crude oil is hydrocarbon but it has some impurities in it. When impurities are removed, other substances are eliminated, too. This is the process to gain refined oil. Korea exports this refined oil all over the world.
The refined oil influences the export of petroleum products, such as semiconductor, mobile phone, LCD and automobiles. Korea Custom Service shows that Korea sold out petroleum products amount of 29.5 billion dollars at the first half year. This figure is up 70 % compared to last year. The number one is ship amount of 36.1 billion dollars.
The official of Korea Custom Service says that despite rising oil prices and export prices, domestic refineries have continued to develop technology and expand target market. And finally they were able to see the fruit of their efforts. Their investments for advanced facilities played an important role in increasing exports. Advanced facilities make value added products such as gasoline or diesel out of Bunker C oil of low price and poor quality.
< Export in the first half year > (Source: Edaily)
Korea is well known for this ship technology. Korea created something out of nothing. Domestic refineries have steadily invested in advanced facilities on a large scale. Petroleum products from the process are now the main export items.
Increasing Oil Exports
It is a trend for domestic refineries to increase the export portion to earn stable profits. Fortunately when crude oil price rises, oil product price is to rise. Unlike other industry impact of soaring price of raw materials is less. The official says refineries make a profit which is second to none.
< Quarterly Trend of Oil Export > (Source: Herald Economy)
The official of Korea Custom Service says the export volume increased largely due to the rising export price, value added technology, diversification of products and expansion of target market. Many years have passed to become oil export nation from non oil nation. However we have to be prepared for oil exhaustion.
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