Transportation business booms through Covid crisis

Sales of Korea's transportation industry reached an all-time high in 2019 thanks to a surge in demand for home deliveries, government data showed Tuesday.

The transportation sector's top line stood at nearly 152 trillion won ($140 billion) last year, up 3.5 percent from the previous year, according to data from Statistics Korea.

It marked the industry's highest annual sales figure since 1964, when data tracking began. The transportation industry's sales also increased for the fifth consecutive year in 2019.

The statistical agency said increased home deliveries, combined with a larger portion of home shopping and online shopping, contributed to the rise of the industry's sales last year.

Sales of the land transport sector gained 3.6 percent on year to 67.8 trillion won last year, and those of the water transportation segment climbed 3.1 percent to 29.2 trillion won.

In contrast, sales of the air transport industry edged down 0.7 percent to 24.8 trillion won due to the fallout from a Sino-U.S. trade war and Japan's export controls on Korea.

South Korea had 393,000 transportation companies as of end-December last year, up 2.3 percent from a year earlier, with their combined workforce rising 1.7 percent to 1.15 million won, according to the data.

Yonhap