The Korea International Trade Association has released a report on South Korea's export competitiveness.
When it comes to the number of export items the nation has global dominance in, South Korea sits in 13th spot.
Kim Hyesung has the details.
Korea is leading the global export market in 71 different items as of 2016, adding three more items from the year before.
That's according to the Korea International Trade Association, which said, in fact, that Korea ranked 13th in the world in terms of the number of exports in which it's the market leader.
2016 was also the first time since 2010 that Korea topped the market in more than 70 items.
More than half of those were in chemicals and steel.
New at the top of the list were naval ships and welding machines.
It's encouraging news for Korea, with half of its GDP coming from exports, but in many of the items Korea was competing with its main trading partners.
In sixteen products, Korea had a market share less than five percentage points bigger than its closest competitors, with fierce competition coming from the U.S. in chemical products, and from Japan and Germany in steel products.
China, topping the market with close to17-hundred items, ranked number one, a position it's held since 2005.
Also in the top six were Germany, the U.S., Italy, Japan and India, each with more than 150 items.
The report noted that Korea's competitors are closing the gap in terms of its main exports, so it emphasized the need for Korea to come up with more high value-added goods and pursue a strategy of differentiation.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.
