Trade minister bets on chips, shipbuilding, cars for 2024

The trade ministry is betting on the semiconductor, shipbuilding and car industries to maximize the country’s exports in 2024, its minister said Wednesday.

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Bang Moon-kyu, who met reporters on the same day, said he predicts the country’s overall exports next year will grow by 5 percent to 6 percent compared to this year thanks to the key industries.

“The Korea International Trade Association predicted the country’s overall exports next year will outperform that of this year by 680 billion won ($513 million), while Hyundai Research Institute predicted so by 690 billion won and other economy analysis centers by six to nine percent,” Bang said in Sejong. “But we carefully predict it would be from 5 percent to 6 percent.”

Semiconductors will be one of the growth engines, according to Bang. He said the industry will show the strongest export growth among the key industries next year, jumping by 18 percent year-on-year.

“The chip industry this year saw a recession, with exports declining by 25 percent compared to the previous year,” Bang said. “It will rebound next year, with exports bagging some 115 billion won more than this year.”

The country’s shipbuilding industry will see its exports grow by 14 percent year-on-year, while the car industry will keep setting new performance records, according to the minister.

“We have so far seen $54 billion in car exports this year and we expect the figure will reach $70.5 billion by the yearend. That’s tremendous,” Bang said. “Especially for vehicles benefiting from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, their exports in November marked $4.3 billion, a huge increase from $3.7 billion last year. Also, considering how our electric vehicles’ market share in the United States has increased and how many were sold, the car industry did very well overall this year.”

He said the chip industry, however, needs further development to boost its exports and the ministry plans to help develop the country’s semiconductor technology through intellectual property (IP), design houses, foundry and packaging.

“Foundry is the strongest of all but other sectors still lag behind, such as cutting-edge packaging, IP and fabless,” Bang said. “We will release an agenda in February to nurture this ecosystem. It will strengthen further the foundry and also focus on its weaker cousins like IP, design house and packaging.”

Bang also mentioned that Korea’s liquid crystal display (LCD) technologies have been leaked to China and how that has caused Korean firms to get angry at the government. He said the government will introduce more punitive measures against the predicament, including revising the country’s Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology.