韩媒行业特写：K-beauty 淡旺季界限模糊，化妆品出口与生产趋于全年旺季

K-Beauty Orders Run Year-Round as Off-Season Fades - Seoul Economic Daily
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The line between peak and off-peak seasons is blurring in South Korea's cosmetics market amid the K-beauty boom. Production and sales, once concentrated in the year-end and spring, now extend into the early months of the year and the height of summer, leaving the industry in something close to peak season all year. Analysts attribute the shift to K-beauty's rapid spread into overseas markets, which has diversified both consumption regions and product categories.
Output Holds Up After Year-End as First Quarter Overtakes Fourth
Cosmax, a cosmetics original design manufacturer (ODM), produced about 172.47 million units in the first quarter of this year, or 116% of the 148.75 million units it made in the fourth quarter of last year, according to industry sources. First-quarter output exceeded that of the fourth quarter, which reflects year-end demand. In 2022, by contrast, first-quarter output stood at just 91% of the previous fourth quarter — the classic seasonal pattern in which volumes fall early in the year after the year-end rush. The industry has traditionally viewed the fourth quarter, when November and December bring gift demand and moisturizing products, and the second quarter, when production of first-half launches ramps up, as the main peak periods.
The distinction is also fading on the sales side. Cosmetics exports totaled $2.56 billion (about 3.44 trillion won) in the first quarter, up 5.9% from $2.42 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the Korea Customs Service. That compares with the first quarter of last year, when exports came to 91.1% of the previous fourth quarter, suggesting the post-year-end slowdown is weakening.
'Busier in Summer': July Output and Exports Both Hit Yearly Highs
The change is most striking in summer, once the most clearly seasonal stretch of the year. July was long seen as a textbook off-season month, with demand for moisturizing and hydrating products falling and relatively few new launches, but output has recently reached its highest level of the year.
Cosmax produced about 86.22 million units in July this year, roughly triple the 28.9 million units it made in July 2021. July ranked fifth and eighth among the months by annual output in 2021 and 2022, respectively, before climbing to first place for the first time in 2023. It placed second last year and returned to first this year. Combined output for June and July this year came to 163.44 million units, close to half the 329.11 million units Cosmax produced in all of 2021.
July has also gained weight in overseas sales. Cosmetics exports reached $1.10 billion in July this year, the highest monthly figure of the year. In July 2023, exports of $539.74 million ranked 11th among the months, before rising to $684.71 million and eighth place in 2024 and $805.40 million and fourth place last year.
Peak-and-Trough Formula Wavers at Individual Companies
Photo courtesy of APR

Photo courtesy of Cosmax
Company results show a similar trend. APR (278470) posted 272.3 billion won in cosmetics and beauty revenue in the third quarter of last year, from July to September, up 19.9% from 227.1 billion won in the second quarter. In 2023, second-quarter revenue of 102.6 billion won slightly exceeded the third quarter's 101.3 billion won, but since 2024 third-quarter revenue has consistently outpaced the second quarter. That points to more than a rise in off-season sales: the underlying pattern of seasonally concentrated demand in the cosmetics market is itself changing.
Amorepacific (090430) also showed the classic split in the past, with second-quarter revenue exceeding the third quarter, but its third-quarter sales have recently been rising instead. In 2023, second-quarter revenue of 945.4 billion won topped the third quarter's 888.8 billion won, while last year third-quarter revenue of 1.017 trillion won surpassed 1.005 trillion won in the second quarter.
Sun Care No Longer a Summer-Only Product as Lineups Widen
Behind the shift, industry watchers point to stronger overseas demand for K-beauty along with a wider range of products consumers are seeking. As offerings tailored to specific skin concerns and lifestyles multiply, the share of goods whose demand clusters in a single season is falling.
Sun care is the prime example. Once treated as a seasonal item consumed mainly in summer, when ultraviolet radiation is strongest, it has recently established itself as a year-round basic product, narrowing month-to-month swings in output. The gap between the highest- and lowest-selling months for Cosmax's sun care line fell to 5.1 times in 2022, 2.4 times in 2023 and 2.0 times in 2024 from 6.6 times in 2021. This year it dropped to 1.6 times, a quarter of the gap four years earlier.
The broadening of product lineups is also seen as easing the concentration of production and sales in particular seasons. The number of cosmetics items produced in South Korea rose to 145,360 last year from 127,656 in 2022, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
The industry expects K-beauty's overseas expansion to accelerate the trend further. Summer in South Korea coincides with winter in markets south of the equator, creating demand for cold-weather products, so a wider sales footprint can smooth out seasonal swings. "Unlike the past, when production and sales volumes varied widely depending on the flagship product for each season, demand for a broad range of items now continues throughout the year, and the notion of peak and off-peak seasons is fading," an industry official said.
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Original reporting by
Noh Hyun-young
for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreign sources are based on Korean-language reports and may not reflect exact original wording.
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