Korean products restores US market sales

Last year, Korean products have recovered its 3%-level market share in the United States for the first time since 1995, thus outplaying France to win the 8th place. On July 16, the Korea International Trade Association`s New York office made a report on Korean products` competitiveness in the U.S. market, after analyzing the 1997-99 statistics released by the U.S. Commerce Department and said that Korea`s market share in 1999 has increased 0.43 percentage point from 1998 to 3.05%. The market share of Korean products, which peaked in 1995 with a 3.25% share, had steadily been sliding to 2.86% in 1996, 2.66% in 1997 and 2.62% in 1998. It said that last year`s gain in Korea`s market share is the largest among 20 major exporters to the U.S. while most of Korea`s competitors like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand saw their market share decreased. By product, Korea has been the leading exporter of integrated circuits, micro circuits and other semiconductors since 1998, outplaying Japan. Also, Korea`s share in consumer electronics such as wireless phone and radios jumped to 15.1% in 1999 from 1998`s 9.4% and that of autos also soared to 3% from the previous year`s 2.1%.