The widespread global economic slump is starting to be reflected in the book industry's export figures. For the first six months of 1998, book exports fell 0.5%, to $881.7 million, according to estimates from the U.S. Commerce Department.
Exports to Asia were the hardest hit, led by a 40.7% decline to South Korea. Sales were also down to Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Japan was the only major Asia trading partner to which exports rose, up 21.1%. Bill Lofquist, publishing analyst for the Commerce Department, speculated that the jump in exports to Japan was the result of the country's universities using their government funding before the spending deadline expired. Exports to America's largest book market, Canada, fell 1.3%, but exports showed double-digit gains to the U.K. and Australia.
Among the major book categories, sales of professional books fell 0.5% in the January to June period, to $280.6 million, while exports of trade paperbacks fell 2.6%. Exports of hardcovers also fell 0.6%. Textbook exports increased 1.6%, and mass market paperback exports gained 4.6%. The largest increase in exports was posted by the Bible and religious book segment, in which sales rose 15.7%.
While economic problems in other places of the world resulted in a drop in exports, those same problems helped fuel the growth of imports into the relatively strong American market. Total book imports rose 10% in the first six months of 1998, to $638.7 million.
Imports from the U.K. increased 14%, to $158.7 million. The most significant change in the import market, however, involved Hong Kong and Canada. Imports from Hong Kong fell 4.6%, to $85.7 million, while imports from Canada jumped 23.4%, to $104.6 million, an increase that moved Canada past Hong Kong as the second largest source of book imports for the U.S.
