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South Korea Textiles and Footwear
Textiles, clothing, and leather products made up about 24
percent of South Korea's manufacturing output in 1980. Over
10,000 textile and footwear enterprises employed more than four
workers each, and 34,000 smaller shops manufactured such products
in 1978. Throughout the 1980s, textiles played a critical role in
Seoul's exports, accounting for US$11.9 billion, or 19.6 percent
of total export earnings. In 1989 the export of textiles (valued
at US$15,340 million) grew 8.5 percent over the 1988 level.
Textile manufacturers, concerned about diminishing export
competitiveness because of wage increases and won revaluation,
expanded their overseas investments in 1987 and 1988. Seoul
approved sixty-six investment projects totaling US$38.4 million
from January 1, 1978, through the end of September 1988. Most of
these investments were located in the Caribbean Basin region and
Southeast Asia. Upgrading product lines---particularly towards
high fashion--and further shifting to the expanding domestic
market were expected to cause slow growth in the industry in the
early 1990s.
South Korea's footwear industry also expanded in the late
1980s. Footwear exports in 1988 totaled US$3.8 billion, a 34.7
percent increase over 1987, 6.3 percent of Seoul's total exports
by value. Economic forecasters, however, predicted that the
industry would decline in the 1990s despite the surge of orders
in 1989; they attributed the 1989 surge to political unrest in
China, normally a major producer of footwear.
Data as of June 1990
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