Annual exports of South Korea’s leading cosmetics maker AmorePacific Group topped $300 million, thanks to brisk sales in the United States that offset falling demand in China amid growing hostility toward Korean products after Seoul’s host of an U.S. missile defense system.

AmorePacific Group said on Tuesday that it received the $300 million Export Tower award at the 54th annual Trade Day ceremony held at the Convention and Exhibition Center in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul after AmorePacific had shipped $385.35 million worth of beauty products from July 2016 to June 2017, which is up 35.2 percent from the same period last year.

The latest achievement comes after the company broke the $100 million export milestone in 2013 and $200 million last year, propelled by a rise in sales in overseas markets.

Ever since AmorePacific exported Korea’s first cosmetics in 1964 under brand Oscar, it has been spearheading the so-called K-beauty in the global market. Since late last year, the company, however, has faced massive challenge in China, one of its top export destinations, amid growing diplomatic tension between Korea and China over Seoul’s deployment of U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system that Beijing sees as a security threat.

To make up the fall in shipments to China, AmorePacific has shifted its focus to other overseas markets and has successfully increased sales in North America and Southeast Asian countries while advancing into new markets including the Middle East and Western Europe, the company said.

By Kang Da-young and Lee Eun-joo

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