Korea has recently posted record exports, but most of the gains have gone to large corporations, deepening the polarization in exports.
According to the "Export and import trends by company size in July 2026" released by the Korea Customs Service on the 26th, last month's exports came to $99.0 billion, up 63.0% from a year earlier, the highest for any July. However, most of the increase went to large corporations. Exports by large corporations jumped 90.7% to $74.4 billion, while mid-sized companies reached $12.7 billion (up 8.7%) and small and medium-sized enterprises came to $11.7 billion (up 17.9%).
As a result, the export shares were 75.2% for large corporations, 12.8% for mid-sized companies, and 11.8% for small and medium-sized enterprises. Compared with a year earlier (64.2% for large corporations, 19.2% for mid-sized companies, 16.4% for small and medium-sized enterprises), the share of large corporations expanded by 10.9 percentage points (p), while the shares of mid-sized companies and small and medium-sized enterprises fell by 6.4 p and 4.5 p, respectively, showing clear polarization.
By item, the temperature gap by company size was most evident in semiconductor exports. Large corporations' semiconductor exports surged 228.3%, and small and medium-sized enterprises also rose 57.7%, but mid-sized companies were the only group to decline, down 13.4%.
The same was true for cumulative results. Cumulative exports from January to July were $595.1 billion, up 50.5% from the same period a year earlier, with large corporations accounting for most at $439.7 billion (up 71.1%), while mid-sized companies posted $80.0 billion (up 9.2%) and small and medium-sized enterprises recorded $73.4 billion (up 14.5%), showing relatively moderate growth.
The Korea Customs Service said it plans to provide export and import trends by company size broken down by item, country, and region every month starting in August.