South Korea reports lower energy imports in Q2

Despite lower commodity prices.

South Korea's imports of energy, including crude oil, coal and natural gas, slid 9.9% from a year earlier to US$35.1 billion in the second quarter,.

The Korea Customs Service also said that in terms of volume, energy imports increased 4% to 72.4 million tons over the same period. It noted that falling energy imports came amid lower commodity prices.

Prices of coal imported from overseas tumbled 22%, with those for crude oil and natural gas falling over 10%.

The portion of energy to total imports fell to 28% in the second quarter from 30% a year earlier due to lower commodity prices.

Crude oil imports in the second quarter plunged 14% to US$23.4 billion year-on-year. Coal imports tumbled 15% to US$3.3 billion over the same period, but those for natural gas increased 8.5% to US$8.37 billion.