SEOUL, KOREA - The performance of Korea's top-500 companies has deteriorated rapidly. According to CEO Score, a website specializing in corporate financial performance reporting, the aggregate operating profit of 500 largest corporations last year was 138 trillion won, down 4.4 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, their net profit has also shrunk to 98 trillion won, 7.8 percent lower than in 2011. But their collective sales revenue rose 7.2 percent to 2,504 trillion won.
The five leading industries accounting for 51.8 percent of all top-500 sales revenues, including IT and electric and electronic, petrochemical, automobile, steel, and shipbuilding, are in a dire situation in terms of profitability except IT and electric and electronic. For example, the petrochemical industry saw its operating profit plummet 50.5 percent to 10 trillion won on a sales revenue of 349 trillion won (+2.6%). The shipbuilding and heavy industry sector also suffered a 48.2-percent decline in operating profit to 6 trillion won. The industry's sales revenue increased 2.0 percent to 151 trillion won.
As for steel, the sales revenue and operating profit growth have been -7.5 and -31.0 percent, respectively. Although the automobile industry enjoyed a healthy growth of 11.0 percent in sales revenue to 269 trillion won and 8.1 percent in operating profit to 19 trillion won, their steep growth pace for years has lost steam. The only industry that saw a continuous growth was IT and electric and electronic, largely thanks to the stellar performance of Samsung Electronics. Last year, the industrial sector recorded a sales revenue of 388 trillion won (+18%) and an operating income of 36 trillion won (+81%).
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