SEOUL– South Korea will strive to further nurture the domestic automotive semiconductor industry amid a global supply shortage of automotive chips that has disrupted the production of vehicles, the finance minister said Thursday.
Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki made the remarks during the “Big 3” innovative growth meeting, which refers to semiconductors, next-generation vehicles and bio-health sectors that the country has been promoting as key growth engines.
“The shortage of automotive chips has disrupted our vehicle manufacturing, and the production of more than 100,000 units has been affected so far,” Hong said. “We’ve been supporting short-time supply responses, such as swift customs clearance and negotiations. Down the road, we will seek longer-term solutions.”
The government will spend 95.7 billion won (US$81.1 million) on research and development for automotive chips by 2025 and plans to unveil a comprehensive roadmap for the technology development and investment strategies in the field in January next year, according to the minister.
Hong also vowed active backing to foster 300 fabless companies and five unicorn firms in the logic chip sector by 2030, referring to an unlisted startup with a valuation of more than US$1 billion. The number of mid- and small-sized fabless chips companies in South Korea came to 150 in 2020.
According to government data, the country’s exports of automobiles fell 18.1 percent last month from a year earlier. Domestic production of cars dropped 21.6 percent and domestic sales declined 21.4 percent to 125,296 units due mainly to the chips shortage.
Source: Yonhap News Agency