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KOREA REPORT - FEBRUARY, 2021.

TOPICS.

SKorea began its AstraZeneca vaccination campaign starting 26th at 1,915 public health center and nursing homes and Pfizer's vaccine from 27th, with medical workers getting the jab first. Health officials said 20,322 people across the country had received their first shots of the vaccines as of 27th, which account for 0.039% of country's population of 52 mil. The country hopes to attain herd immunity by Nov.

Iran said on 2nd it has allowed the crew of SKorean oil tanker it seized to leave the country. MT Hankuk Chemi had 20 sailors, including five Koreans, aboard when it was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps for alleged oil pollution on Jan 4th. The release comes in a "humanitarian move" by Tehran following a request from SKorean government. Observers said the vessel's seizure could be linked to Iran's anger over its assets frozen in SKorea due to US sanctions on the regime.

SKorea registered trade surplus of $2.71 mil in Feb, tenth consecutive month of surplus, down 33.9% on-year. Exports rose 9.5% on-year to $ 44.8 bil, thanks to chip and car shipments and recovery in business sentiment as covid-19 vaccination spreads. Imports grew 13.9% on-year to $ 42.1 bil. Chip shipments increased 13.2% in Feb, while vehicle sales overseas soared 47% on-year.

Korean shipbuilders are expected to undergo a temporary shortage of order backlogs in second half of the year, as new orders of ships last year, which are slated to be delivered by 2022, were very deficient, KOEXIM Bank Overseas Economic Research Institute said on 2nd. In addition, sharp rise in local shipbuilders' new orders in Oct-Dec period will not make up for the decline in order backlogs in second half of this year, as most of them will be completed by 2023. Local shipbuilders' order backlogs stood at 22.16 mil cgt last year, down 5% on-year, or 1.09 mil cgt, according to Clarkson Research Service. Global new orders of ships reached 19.2 mil cgt last year, down 34% compared with 29.1 mil cgt in 2019. New orders of ships won by Korean shipbuilders stood at 8.2 mil cgt last year, down 16.5% from 9.8 mil cgt in 2019. Global new orders are expected to come to 30 mil cgt this year, up 57% on-year, due to soaring demand for new ships to replace old ships, as toughed environmental regulations are predicted to take effect in 2023.

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