South Korea’s ‘export’ crisis

Japan Times ^ | 05/26/2013 | Sentaku

[TexGrill]

South Korea’s ‘export’ crisis

May 27, 2013 Article history Online: May 27, 2013 Print: May 27, 2013 Last Modfied: May 27, 2013 PRINT SHARE On the streets of Seoul, there has lately been a conspicuous increase in the number of high-end imported cars with brand names like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus, in stark contrast to five years ago when the country’s auto market was virtually monopolized by the two domestic names of Hyundai and Kia.

Statistically imports in 2012 surpassed 10 percent of the South Korean car market for the first time in terms of volume and accounted for 23.2 percent in value. BMW, in particular, became the fourth-largest automaker in the Korean market in terms of sales value.

This growth of imported cars can be attributed to a shift in South Korean car buyers’ tastes toward more sophisticated designs, performance characteristics and brand images. More important, this reveals the local manufacturers’ inability to design and build products with high added value and attractive brand images.

This is true not only of automobiles but also of electronic products. Samsung Electronics, for example, did succeed in overwhelming all of its Japanese competitors but has no technologies or products of its own development that can be called the “first in the world.”

The South Korean manufacturing industry as a whole may well be entering the twilight years at an unexpectedly rapid pace due to this lack of innovative skills, coupled with recent cost increases, the rising value of the won currency and mounting instability on the Korean Peninsula.

[TexGrill]

South Korea's new cap-and-trade policies will only make the economy get much worse.