Chinese Chasers
The Hyundai Research Institute predicted on Jan. 18 that Korean exporters are likely to be increasingly challenged by Chinese companies in various industrial sectors.
At present, Chinese exporters are outperforming their Korean rivals in almost all major industries of Korea with the exception of automobiles; they are especially cut-throat in the IT sector. Besides, China has already outpaced Korea in shipbuilding, petrochemicals, steel, and machinery manufacturing.
In 2013, Korea accounted for 5.8 percent of the imported car market to lead China by a margin of 2.6 percentage points. However, Korea’s global market share was 6.4 percent, 0.5 percentage points lower than China’s, in the imported auto parts market during the same period.
In the IT sector, China is increasing its system-on-chip (SoC) market share while Korea has focused on the export of memory semiconductor products. In addition, China is outdoing Korea in the display panel segment by recording a market share of 28.5 percent, 13.2 percentage points higher than that of Korea.
Korea is currently the number one when it comes to marine vessel export but China won more orders both in 2012 and 2013. In petrochemical product export, Korea ranks eighth in the world whereas China is holding the second place. Both countries have increased their steel product export since the recent global financial crisis but China’s growth, unlike that of Korea, has been led by high value added products. China is continuing to grow in the machinery industry, too. It took up 11.4 percent of the global machinery market in 2013 to take the third spot while Korea remained at the ninth.
“Technological advancement and high added value-centered product development are required for Korea to cope with the rise of China,” the research institute advised, adding, “New manufacturing sectors for new materials and components and convergence-based future technologies will be the key along with export market diversification.”