Winners: Airlines and Steel

A weaker won increases the won-denominated value of revenue earned in US dollars, benefiting carriers that sell a large share of tickets abroad and steel producers that price exports in foreign currency. Passenger and cargo carriers are among the most direct beneficiaries, as a substantial portion of their sales is dollar-denominated while a meaningful share of costs is paid in won.

Steelmakers similarly gain on export pricing, with the currency shift improving the competitiveness of their overseas shipments.

Losers: Automakers and Semiconductors

The same currency move cuts the other way for automakers and the semiconductor industry. Both sectors rely heavily on imported components, materials and production equipment, and a weaker won raises the cost of those purchases. For chipmakers — including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — much of the capital expenditure for wafer fabrication is priced in dollars, so currency weakness can inflate investment costs even as it lifts the value of export revenue.

Automakers face a similar squeeze, with imported parts and materials becoming more expensive against domestically earned revenue.

The net effect varies by company depending on its mix of foreign-currency revenue and import exposure, and the overall impact on earnings remains subject to how exchange rates move from here.

For companies with dollar revenues and largely domestic cost bases, the won's slide is a tailwind; for those carrying heavy import bills, it is a growing headwind — on balance, the sector split described in the claim is Mostly True.