South Korea's trade surplus in parts, materials forecast to top $100bn

 South Korea's trade surplus in the industrial parts and materials sector was forecast to top 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 given the positive record for the first nine months of this year, a government report showed Wednesday.
For the first nine month of 2014, exports of industrial parts and materials climbed 4.1 percent from a year earlier to 203.3 billion dollars, and their imports increased 2.2 percent to 125.4 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
Trade surplus in the sector reached 77.9 billion dollars during the January-September period, up 7.3 percent year-on-year.
The sector led around half of the exports for all industries this year despite the worsening trade conditions such as a weak Japanese yen.
The rate of import dependence on Japan declined to a record low of 18 percent during the January-September period. The rate continued to fall from 25.2 percent in 2010 to 23.0 percent in 2012 and 20.8 percent in 2013.