Korea's Major Industries Losing Steam

Korea's eight major industries will gradually become less competitive, and only the shipbuilding sector will maintain an edge for the next three years, businesses predict.

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The forecast comes from a survey of businesses released by the Korea Economic Research Institute on Sunday about the state of the eight major industries -- semiconductors, petrochemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles, oil products, iron and steel, displays, and wireless communications devices. It was conducted on Nov. 7-13.

Four of them -- shipbuilding, oil products, displays and wireless communications devices -- still have an advantage over the foreign competition. Their biggest rival, China, scores about 90 in all of them if Korea is set at 100 on the competitiveness scale.

But Japan is way ahead of Korea in automobiles at 130 and iron and steel at 110, and Saudi Arabia leads in the petrochemical sector at 110.

But prospects three years from now are gloomier. Korea will maintain its advantage only in shipbuilding but will be overtaken by China in oil products, displays and wireless communications devices. It remains far more competitive than China in building eco-friendly ships, including LNG-fueled ships.

Lee Sang-ho of the KERI said, "Korea has a technological advantage over China, but the situation is worrying because it's less competitive on price".