H. Yoo
Research expert covering South Korea
Chemical industry in South Korea - statistics & facts
The chemical industry is one of the most important industries worldwide. Thanks to the large petrochemical and commodity chemicals sector in South Korea, the country is one of the leading chemical markets worldwide. Additionally, one of the world’s leading chemical companies is South Korean company LG Chem.
International trade
Chemicals are a valuable good within the international trade market. In 2021, the value of traded chemicals amounted to around 1.74 trillion U.S. dollars. South Korea is one of the world’s leading chemical exporters. Most of South Korea’s export partners are other Asian countries, with China importing more Korean chemicals than the other top nine partners combined. Additionally, the country is also an active importer of chemicals. As South Korea lacks natural sources of oil and gas, the import of petrochemicals for domestic use and further processing is vital.Petrochemicals and commodity chemicals
South Korea generally imports basic petrochemicals, such as crude oil, and then processes these chemicals domestically. The resulting products are used for a variety of things, such as domestic energy consumption or manufacturing. As of 2021, around half of domestic energy consumption was sourced from petroleum. Another major chemical subsector South Korea is active in is the production of commodity chemicals. In fact, domestic chemical production capacity is highly developed for various commodity chemicals, many of which are also petrochemicals. Domestic demand for petrochemicals in South Korea closely matches the available production capacity, suggesting that the industry is well equipped to deal with the domestic market.
