South Korea's exports are expected to have edged up 1.2 percent in March from a year earlier, a poll showed Monday, but the global spread of the new coronavirus is expected to hurt outbound shipments by Asia's No. 4 economy down the road due to the global spread of the new coronavirus.

The country's outbound shipments are estimated at $47.5 billion this month, according to the poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. The survey was carried out on eight local brokerage houses.

The country's trade surplus was expected to hit $4.8 billion in March, marking 98 straight months in which the country's exports have exceeded imports, the poll showed.

South Korea will release the monthly export data on Wednesday.

South Korea's exports had dropped for 14 consecutive months until January, largely due to a prolonged trade dispute between the United States and China and a slump in global chip prices. Exports rebounded 4.5 percent in February from a year earlier.

Outbound shipments moved up 10 percent in the first 20 days of March from a year earlier, customs data showed earlier this month, led by chips along with increased working days.

The daily average for the period, however, slipped 0.4 percent on-year. The customs office noted the number of working days over the cited period came to 16 this year, compared with 14.5 last year.

The trade ministry suggested in January its annual exports are set to rebound 3 percent in 2020 on the back of the recovery of chips.

The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has blown the expectation out of the water as the number of infections started to soar in Europe and North America starting mid-March, indicating overseas orders are poised to drop starting April. (Yonhap)