Egypt’s exports to South Korea hits 161% in 2022

Egypt’s exports to South Korea recorded significant growth of 161 percent in 2022 year-on-year to $1.69 billion, the Cairo office of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said on Sunday.

KOTRA added that Egypt’s exports to South Korea marked a $220 million surplus in 2022 from a $1 billion trade deficit in 2021.

Egypt exported natural gas worth $810 million and petroleum product naphtha with value $760 million, marking a 705 percent and 107 percent increase respectively in 2022 from 2021.

On the other hand, South Korea’s exports to Egypt fell by 13 percent on-year to $1.46 billion due to the government’s mandatory L/C measures at the time of importation and the difficulty of remittances from Egypt.

Major Korean imports include synthetic resins, passenger cars, auto parts, soft steel plates, and semiconductors.

Hong Jinwook, ambassador of South Korea highlighted the inter-governmental relations of the two countries are strong including high-level exchanges such as the President Moon’s visit to Egypt in January 2022.

In 2022, South Korea made a cumulative investment of about $790 million in Egypt, 33 times Egypt’s investment in South Korea, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea.