Organic chemicals: South Korea exports and imports

HS chapter 29 · 유기화학품 · latest month: October 2026

Exports, October 2026

$1.77B

-0.5% vs previous month

vs same month a year earlier

+23.5%

export value

Exports, last 12 months

$20.43B

+6.1% vs 12 months before

Imports, October 2026

$1.40B

Export value per kg

$1.40

net weight, October 2026

In October 2026, South Korea exported $1.77 billion of organic chemicals (HS 29), down 0.5% from September 2026 and up 23.5% from October 2025.

Over the 12 months to October 2026, exports of organic chemicals (HS 29) totalled $20.43 billion, up 6.1% from the 12 months before ($19.25 billion).

The largest destination over the 12 months to October 2026 was China ($10.09 billion, 49.4% of the total), followed by Japan and the United States.

That was 1.9% of South Korea's total goods exports over the same 12 months.

Imports in October 2026 were $1.40 billion (up 43.4% from October 2025), leaving a surplus of $362.2 million for the month.

Last 24 months

Monthly exportsExport value in US dollars (FOB).

Monthly importsImport value in US dollars (CIF).

Headings under chapter 29

Code	Product	Exports, 12 months	Share	vs 12 months before	October 2026
2902	Cyclic hydrocarbons	$7.92B	38.8%	+8.9%	$651.2M
2901	Acyclic hydrocarbons	$3.08B	15.1%	-11.8%	$304.4M
2917	Polycarboxylic acids and their derivatives	$2.18B	10.7%	+16.0%	$199.4M
2929	Compounds with other nitrogen function	$1.12B	5.5%	+27.7%	$92.8M
2905	Acyclic alcohols and their derivatives	$497.8M	2.4%	-10.1%	$47.3M
2933	Heterocyclic compounds with nitrogen hetero-atom(s) only	$484.8M	2.4%	+1.7%	$39.9M
2907	Phenols and phenol-alcohols	$478.2M	2.3%	+18.1%	$34.3M
2903	Halogenated derivatives of hydrocarbons	$411.7M	2.0%	+6.0%	$40.9M
2931	Other organo-inorganic compounds	$407.5M	2.0%	+10.2%	$33.1M
2926	Nitrile-function compounds	$403.1M	2.0%	+16.2%	$48.3M
2934	Nucleic acids and other heterocyclic compounds	$390.8M	1.9%	+12.9%	$21.5M
2916	Unsaturated acyclic and cyclic monocarboxylic acids	$380.5M	1.9%	+14.1%	$42.1M
2915	Saturated acyclic monocarboxylic acids (including acetic acid)	$315.5M	1.5%	+6.5%	$20.0M
2909	Ethers, ether-alcohols and peroxides	$240.6M	1.2%	+5.9%	$20.0M
2918	Carboxylic acids with additional oxygen function	$217.7M	1.1%	-4.1%	$15.6M
2922	Oxygen-function amino-compounds	$204.8M	1.0%	+13.1%	$21.4M
2914	Ketones and quinones, whether or not with other oxygen function, etc.	$197.3M	1.0%	+17.7%	$18.0M
2921	Amine-function compounds	$197.3M	1.0%	+0.2%	$13.8M
2930	Organo-sulphur compounds	$146.7M	0.7%	+7.5%	$11.2M
2941	Antibiotics	$123.4M	0.6%	-11.1%	$5.4M
2932	Heterocyclic compounds with oxygen hetero-atom(s) only	$121.2M	0.6%	-6.0%	$5.0M
2920	Esters of other inorganic acids of non-metals and their salts, etc.	$116.7M	0.6%	+26.2%	$9.4M
2935	Sulphonamides	$112.6M	0.6%	+10.6%	$18.4M
2924	Carboxyamide-function compounds, etc.	$110.2M	0.5%	+18.9%	$9.7M
2910	Epoxides, epoxyalcohols, epoxyphenols and epoxyethers, etc.	$99.5M	0.5%	-0.2%	$5.6M
2923	Quaternary ammonium salts and hydroxides, etc.	$78.2M	0.4%	+20.9%	$6.6M
2936	Provitamins and vitamins, natural or reproduced by synthesis, etc.	$67.6M	0.3%	+8.7%	$4.3M
2927	Diazo-, azo- or azoxy-compounds	$58.9M	0.3%	+10.0%	$3.9M
2925	Carboxyimide-function compounds and imine-function compounds, etc.	$57.0M	0.3%	+6.0%	$4.7M
2937	Hormones, prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes, etc.	$45.2M	0.2%	+5.3%	$3.2M
2938	Glycosides, natural or reproduced by synthesis, and their salts, ethers, etc.	$39.3M	0.2%	+43.8%	$2.2M
2906	Cyclic alcohols and their halogenated, sulphonated, etc.	$31.3M	0.2%	+6.1%	$2.8M
2904	Sulphonated, nitrated or nitrosated derivatives of hydrocarbons, etc.	$27.8M	0.1%	+19.3%	$2.6M
2942	Other organic compounds	$15.4M	0.1%	+44.5%	$1.7M
2928	Organic derivatives of hydrazine or of hydroxylamine	$12.9M	0.1%	+7.5%	$1.2M
2940	Sugars, chemically pure, other than sucrose, lactose, maltose, etc.	$12.0M	0.1%	+35.9%	$882K
2908	Derivatives of phenols (halogenated, sulphonated, nitrated)	$8.8M	0.0%	-50.0%	$1.2M
2911	Acetals and hemiacetals, whether or not with other oxygen function, etc.	$7.3M	0.0%	+5.1%	$609K
2919	Phosphoric esters and their salts, including lactophosphates, etc.	$4.4M	0.0%	+7.1%	$587K
2912	Aldehydes, whether or not with other oxygen function, etc.	$2.7M	0.0%	-2.7%	$48K
2939	Alkaloids, natural or reproduced by synthesis, and their salts, ethers, etc.	$870K	0.0%	-21.4%	$67K
2913	Derivatives of aldehydes (halogenated, sulphonated, nitrated)	$6,818	0.0%	–	$373

Top destinations

Export value over the 12 months to October 2026. 169 countries received this product from South Korea in the last 24 months; the table shows the largest 20.

Rank	Country	Exports, 12 months	Share	vs 12 months before	Rank before	October 2026
1	China	$10.09B	49.4%	-2.7%	1	$845.2M
2	Japan	$1.40B	6.8%	+30.6%	3	$115.8M
3	United States	$1.30B	6.4%	+31.9%	4	$117.6M
4	India	$1.23B	6.0%	+11.9%	2	$154.6M
5	Türkiye	$1.21B	5.9%	+41.1%	5	$97.4M
6	Taiwan	$745.0M	3.6%	-9.5%	6	$59.7M
7	Netherlands	$377.2M	1.8%	-6.8%	7	$32.0M
8	Thailand	$346.5M	1.7%	+24.3%	8	$25.2M
9	Belgium	$285.4M	1.4%	+19.5%	10	$4.6M
10	Lithuania	$246.5M	1.2%	-9.5%	9	$47.4M
11	Vietnam	$236.4M	1.2%	+6.8%	12	$20.4M
12	Ireland	$227.2M	1.1%	+30.3%	14	$25.5M
13	Indonesia	$215.9M	1.1%	-3.8%	11	$13.9M
14	Mexico	$179.7M	0.9%	+200.7%	24	$3.4M
15	Italy	$172.8M	0.8%	-9.2%	13	$10.2M
16	Malaysia	$156.1M	0.8%	-0.7%	16	$12.2M
17	Germany	$146.4M	0.7%	+3.3%	17	$7.8M
18	Brazil	$146.0M	0.7%	+7.2%	18	$6.7M
19	Egypt	$132.2M	0.6%	+327.9%	35	$7.1M
20	Singapore	$119.7M	0.6%	-6.2%	20	$8.1M

Countries are linked when exports of this product to them reached $1,000,000 over 24 months.

Monthly figures

Month	Exports	vs year earlier	Export weight	Export $/kg	Imports	Import weight
October 2026	$1.77B	+23.5%	1,259,184 t	$1.40	$1.40B	678,158 t
September 2026	$1.77B	+4.3%	1,304,762 t	$1.36	$1.52B	760,953 t
August 2026	$1.77B	+13.9%	1,474,785 t	$1.20	$1.24B	682,593 t
July 2026	$1.86B	+14.4%	1,546,346 t	$1.20	$1.26B	715,058 t
June 2026	$1.68B	+7.2%	1,312,010 t	$1.28	$1.42B	755,152 t
May 2026	$1.53B	+3.8%	1,073,210 t	$1.43	$1.63B	852,267 t
April 2026	$1.70B	+9.4%	1,191,891 t	$1.43	$1.56B	823,827 t
March 2026	$2.02B	+25.1%	1,703,214 t	$1.18	$1.30B	691,116 t
February 2026	$1.54B	-10.2%	1,544,287 t	$1.00	$1.03B	670,731 t
January 2026	$1.68B	+3.9%	1,751,323 t	$0.96	$1.15B	718,047 t
December 2025	$1.67B	-8.9%	1,787,599 t	$0.93	$1.24B	758,519 t
November 2025	$1.44B	-7.9%	1,609,593 t	$0.89	$997.1M	649,368 t
October 2025	$1.43B	-17.9%	1,560,773 t	$0.92	$978.6M	643,822 t
September 2025	$1.70B	-1.8%	1,769,700 t	$0.96	$1.21B	767,891 t
August 2025	$1.55B	-20.4%	1,628,225 t	$0.95	$1.04B	733,989 t
July 2025	$1.63B	-15.4%	1,695,173 t	$0.96	$1.16B	724,710 t
June 2025	$1.57B	-3.9%	1,639,677 t	$0.96	$1.10B	663,529 t
May 2025	$1.47B	-19.2%	1,510,875 t	$0.98	$1.11B	700,875 t
April 2025	$1.55B	-23.5%	1,553,413 t	$1.00	$1.24B	766,109 t
March 2025	$1.61B	-14.7%	1,567,719 t	$1.03	$1.14B	646,791 t
February 2025	$1.72B	-8.0%	1,645,370 t	$1.05	$1.25B	782,685 t
January 2025	$1.62B	-13.3%	1,608,905 t	$1.01	$1.16B	718,952 t
December 2024	$1.83B	-3.4%	1,825,578 t	$1.00	$1.13B	682,787 t
November 2024	$1.56B	-11.5%	1,449,383 t	$1.08	$1.06B	591,057 t

Exports FOB, imports CIF, US dollars. Weight is net weight. "vs year earlier" compares export value with the same month one year before and is left blank when that month was under $10,000. Source: Korea Customs Service, via data.go.kr.