Seoul: China has now outpaced South Korea in terms of competitiveness across most advanced manufacturing industries, with the exception of memory chip technologies, as highlighted by a local think tank.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET) has released a report detailing China's competitive edge over South Korea in several key sectors. These include robotics, electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, and semiconductors, excluding the memory chip sector. The findings are based on a survey conducted among industrial experts in September.
The report delves into various sectors, noting that South Korea holds a slight advantage in research and development within the industrial robots sector, particularly in product development and design. However, China is leading when it comes to component procurement, mass production, and establishing a presence in overseas markets.
In the electric vehicle sector, while Korean companies dominate in after-sales service and hold a larger combined share in the global market, Chinese firms excel in autonomous driving technologies. The semiconductor sector reveals a similar pattern; South Korea maintains its leadership in memory chip technologies, yet China's strength is evident in artificial intelligence (AI) chip design and system semiconductors.
Cho Eun-kyo, head of KIET's China analysis team, remarked on the evolving nature of the competition between Korea and China, emphasizing that it has transitioned from technological catch-up to a broader competition involving industrial ecosystems, supply chains, and markets. Cho stressed the need for Korea to enhance its industrial strategy by securing cutting-edge technologies and strategically leveraging China's industrial ecosystem.