South Korea’s manufacturing sector is projected to experience continued sluggishness during the second quarter, a comprehensive business survey released on Friday indicates.
According to the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET), the Business Survey Index (BSI) for the nation’s leading 1,500 manufacturing firms, ranked by sales, held steady at 93 for the April-June period, mirroring the previous quarter’s figure.
A BSI score below 100 signifies that pessimistic outlooks prevail over optimistic ones, whereas a score above this benchmark indicates the reverse sentiment.
Specific sub-indices within the BSI revealed challenges across several key areas, with exports at 92, facility investment at 98, employment also at 98, and financial condition registering the lowest at 88, all falling below the critical 100-point threshold.
Remarkably, among all industrial categories surveyed, only the robust semiconductor and shipbuilding sectors managed to achieve a BSI exceeding the 100-point mark, indicating their relative resilience.
Conversely, the display sector experienced a notable decline, dropping 11 points from the prior quarter to 86, while the chemicals sector’s BSI also decreased by 7 points, settling at 91.
The oil refining industry recorded the most pessimistic outlook, posting the lowest BSI among all surveyed sectors at 78, a significant 9-point drop from the preceding quarter.
Furthermore, a separate survey conducted by the KIET highlighted that over half of the respondents identified external uncertainties as the primary factor impacting their business operations and future prospects.
