30 Vol-1 Issue-6 Choong Y. Lee

ZENITH
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Vol.1 Issue 6, October 2011, ISSN 2231 5780
THE RISE OF KOREAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY:

ANALYSIS AND SUGGESTIONS
CHOONG Y. LEE*
*Gladys A. Kelce College of Business, Pittsburg State University,
Pittsburg, KS 66762, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT
The Korean automobile industry is one of the largest in the world and is quickly becoming
the fastest growing one in the global markets especially after the recent global financial crisis
in 2008. It has grown from a small government-controlled industry to large multinational
enterprises for the last three decades. This paper will talk about how the Korean automobile
industry has risen so quickly in such a short time period. It will discuss how the Korean
automobile industry has made huge impact on the global market by analyzing key areas of its
operations, such as product diversification, new car development, manufacturing process,
marketing strategies, economic and social significance, in addition to SWOT analysis for the
comprehensive strategic assessment of the overall conditions around the industry. The
competitive analysis of the Korean auto parts industry will be added by using the Porters
Five Forces model. Finally, some suggestions will be made for its continuous growth in the
global markets.
KEYWORDS: Competitive Analysis, Comprehensive Strategic Assessment, Korean
Automobile Industry, Porters Five Forces, SWOT Analysis.
___________________________________________________________________________
The automobile industry is generally considered as an important measure to gauge the

industrial level of a country, as it generates huge added value to the economy in a country.
The industry is a prime example for generating economies of scale in the business sense.
One vehicle typically consists of over 20,000 parts, each one of which plays a vital role in
developing an economy and creating jobs in a country. Accordingly, the automobile industry
usually has huge impacts on the economy in any country. Since the automobile industry is a
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The Korean automobile industry is the fifth largest in the world in terms of the production
volume and the sixth largest in the export volume in 2010. In the last three decades
beginning in the 1970s, South Koreas automotive industry has risen from a small
government-controlled parochial industry to a significant player in the global markets. Three
major companiesHyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation, and Daewoo Motor
Corporationaccounted for about 90 percent of the South Korean market, while the
remainder was split among two minor producers and imports. Kia, South Koreas second
largest automaker in Korea after Hyundai, was acquired by Hyundai in 1998. The merged
Hyundai-Kia ranks the fifth in terms of the production volume after Toyota, GM,
Volkswagen, and Ford in the world. Korea is now labeled as one of the most advanced and
sophisticated automobile producing countries in the world along with the other super powers
like United States, Japan and Germany.
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INTRODUCTION
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technology-intensive industry, lots of different technologies developed in other industries can

be widely employed in this industry. So, it is a backbone in many countries economy.
Korea is also emerging as one of the most popular and attractive spots for global auto
parts industry since it is strategically positioned between high tech, high priced Japan and
developing, low cost China. Hence the biggest advantage Korea has is the ideal balance
between costs and quality compared to its competitors. Although the Korean automobile
manufacturers global sales climbed to about 11 percent on average for the last five years, its
operating margins have been reduced significantly and consequently profits has decreased by
nearly three times faster than the operating margins. These are due to the strong value of the
Korean currency against other major currencies, including the US dollar and Japanese yen.
The Korean won is about twice as strong as it was after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The
pressure on margins is keeping things tight as the US automobile manufacturers are offering
large discounts and the Japanese yen is weakening too. In order to cut costs, most of the
Korean automobile companies are renegotiating contracts with the suppliers; and not long
ago, in 2009, over eight thousand managers in a Korea automobile company, actually it was
Hyundai Motor Company, accepted a freeze in their wages to sustain business in the current
competitive markets all over the world.
ANALYSIS OF THE KOREAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
PRODUCT DIVERSIFICATION
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During 1990s, when Korea was growing at a slower pace, it forced most Korean
automobile companies to begin divesting themselves from other products they produced and
components in which they had long held interests. As a result, by the late 1990s they could
enter into international markets and started expanding their business globally with its
competitiveness created from such changes. Then, with successful operations in the major
global markets, especially in the US markets, after several years, they could introduce various
types of products to the global markets.
The Korean automobile industry has produced many different types of motor vehicles
with high quality at reasonable costs. Most companies have competitive resources, technical,
and managerial skills in this manufacturing industry. They have consistently produced them
and tried to diversify their products with strong support and collaboration from their suppliers.
The existence of all those reliable, dedicated suppliers is one of main reasons why Korean
automobile companies could produced various types of automobiles efficiently and
effectively in short lead times. But the Korean automobile industry has the best operations in
manufacturing automobiles at reasonable costs. There have been many predominant
automobile companies in the world which diversified their products, but could not succeed all
the way in the global markets. For example, Ford Motors once manufactured tractors and
General Motors (GM) manufactured appliances for home and diesel powered locomotives.
By the end of the 20th century, however, Ford and GM had divested themselves of most of
their nonautomotive operations and had spun off most of their automotive components making divisions into separate stock companies - Delphi Automotive Systems in the case of
General Motors and Visteon Automotive in the case of Ford.
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NEW CAR DEVELOPMENT

New car development was first introduced by Western industries such as Ford and
some other European companies. It was largely standardized to most of their markets in the
world. When a research for developing a new car is done, it usually takes about five to six
years for the car to be produced and marketed. So there is a high level of risk naturally in this
venture. So basically all of the functional areas needed in the development stage, such as R
&D, design, procurement, engineering, manufacturing, and even accounting and marketing,
have to agree on the product. Then they could decide to make a new model to see if it would
be a success in the market.
There has been rapidly increased competition around the world in terms of new car
development. Korean automobile companies would take a different approach of bringing in
auto parts manufacturers, assembling and organizing them from the very beginning stage of
the development process. First, they usually try to develop unique relationships with their
parts suppliers, which look like a win-win partnership based on long-term contracts, then take
those suppliers to every step of the development process by sharing all important information
for development, even including target costs and expected margins, etc. In this way, Korean
automobile companies could get sincere support and honest collaboration from those
suppliers based on mutual trust, so that they could reduce the time of re-designing and reengineering, and eventually the costs. Those parts manufacturers could also manufacture
their products easily and ultimately save lots of money not only in development, but also in
production. Finally, Korean automobile companies could lead themselves to reduce the total
time needed from scratch to market for a new car to about three years, which is very
impressive compared to other competitors. In reality, they would save several millions of
dollars and reduce risk significantly in the process.
This type of new system leads Korean automobile companies to perfect their control
over the subcontractors and the vendors. They usually encourage their subcontractors or
suppliers to build up their facility nearby their plants, and some automobile companies would
take their sub-contractors and suppliers along with them no matter where they build their
plants, domestically or abroad. In-house manufacturing of parts takes place practically in
the same location by outside contractors. This practice is generally accepted by most
automobile companies in Korea, and now very popular among other companies in the world.
It helps the company to reduce the cost of the parts, and require less investment of the
company. Also, it improves the quality of the parts and shortens the delivery time
dramatically. In addition, it enhances communications among all stakeholders.
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Manufacturing processes in the automobile industry was pioneered by Henry Ford

when the assembly line production concept was introduced for his plants more than hundred
years ago. Basically, the same type of production has been used continuously even today
with more elaboration and sophistication. Then, from the Japanese manufacturers such as
Toyota, the world learned about Just-in time and Lean operations system. No companies
today would like to build a high level of inventory stacked up for the future. This concept
enables manufacturers to have an accurate flow of materials through their operations in the
plant. In this case, the flow of materials should be smooth. When there is any problem, the
Japanese concepts normally allow the managers to stop its operations, which would incur
huge losses to the company.
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
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MARKETING STRATEGIES
While the mass production is still a common practice by the automobile industry in
the world, the demand of motor vehicles also increased steadily all over the world. This
makes automobile manufacturers concentrate more on the services needed for their products.
This is a major factor in instilling confidence to the customers, and it is very much required in
order to survive in todays tense competition from all over the world. Since distribution and
sales networks are generally very complex and complicated, there is a need of well organized
and better equipped after-sales service department. The automobile companies should
provide the highest level of services to their customers to win competition against other
competitors no matter where they do their business and no matter what products they carry to
the markets.
The typical Korean automobile company has a unique system of franchise dealership
whereas the manufacturer decides on models and makes that can be sold and serviced by the
dealers. Even the quota of cars for sales is also decided by the manufacturer. This helps
them in control of services and guarantees proper after-sales service to the customers. In
return, the dealers are given a particular region where no other dealers can sell the cars
produced by the same company. This approach helps them to enhance their sales without any
additional costs of sales. Also manufacturers are responsible for all kinds of promotion and
advertisement and help dealers concentrate just on their service facilities. It is a very
standardized system practiced in Korea. This unique system helps all the dealers to be united
and concentrated on services more than anything else. Also the prices, services, and facilities
are all uniform all over the country. This is a healthy competition against rival companies
which also follow a similar practice.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY IN
KOREA
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The Korean automobile industry has further significance to other related industries in
Korea. The technological development and advancement in the automobile industry has been
enormous, and it helps other industries in many ways. For instance, one third of Koreas
rubber production is consumed in its automobile industry. Highly specialized labor trained
and technologies developed in the automobile industry are used in other similar
manufacturing industries. Shipbuilding has been another industry of excellence in Korea
based on those labor and technologies originally developed from the automobile industry.
Both automobile and shipbuilding industry help the Korean economy to flourish together.
These two largest industries in Korea are closely related to manufacturing and they are
technologically advanced equally by complementing each other in many ways. Also other
industries, such as transportation, and raw materials manufacturing, have been steadily
growing along with the automobile industry. Huge employment in the automobile industry
helps Korea increase their per capita income and makes economically strong.
Korea is predominantly strong in manufacturing automobiles. The automobile

industry is one of the most important industries in Korea, and has huge impacts on the
Korean economy. It has been a significant part of their exports, like other industrialized
countries such as Germany, Japan, United States, Sweden, and Canada. Korea has been a
major global force in terms of production volume as well as export volume. Its automobile
industry helps Korea in balancing exports and imports.
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SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT analysis is a tool of strategic planning which is used to evaluate the strength,
weakness, opportunities, and threats involved in a business or project venture. SWOT
analysis involves specifying the goals and objective of the business venture and also
identifying the external and internal factors which are either unfavorable or favorable for the
company to achieve its objectives. So, the SWOT analysis aims to identify both the external
and internal factors which are the essential and critical to the companys operations and
practices in achieving its objectives. Therefore, the two main categories in a SWOT analysis
are; internal and external factors. The first category, which is the internal factors, comprises
of weakness and strength found in an organization. The second one is the external factors,
which are threats and opportunities found from the external environment.
Conducting a SWOT analysis for the Korean automobile industry will identify those
four dimensions strength, weakness, opportunities and threats faced by the Korean
automobile industry. It will help in strategic planning and decision-making process based on
the weakness and strength of the industry. It can be used to do a comprehensive strategic
assessment for the industry. The evaluation and responsiveness will also be assessed by
examining the external environment around the industry. So, the opportunities an
organization has will be identified and capitalized upon. The potential threats will also be
identified which pose future challenges to the industry. Through the analysis, identification
and highlighting of the major areas of strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats will
make be useful for making adjustments, realignments, and changes in its business strategies.
The analysis will be of vital importance for those interested in learning about the
Korean automobile industry and especially for the top management of those Korean
companies in making decisions. Other parties who will get benefits from the SWAT analysis
include those parts suppliers, potential and current investors, vendors, the individual
companys analyst group, and those associated with the Korean automobile industry.
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The Korean automobile industrys major strengths are its efficient R&D process,
strong global networks, and the wide range of products covering the major niches in the
global markets. Most of Korean automobile companies are now producing various types of
reliable and reasonable automobiles in the low price range and is trying to compete against
the worlds best companies even in the high-end luxury markets based on its fast
development of luxury cars from strong R&D as a fast follower. We could see them as a
major player in the global markets especially after the merger of Hyundai and Kia in 1998,
and we can recognize them as a global force now and even a global leader in the future. It is
one of the biggest strengths they possess. They are producing high quality cars at a very
reasonable price which makes exceptionally competitive in the global markets. They used to
be known just for their price competitiveness based on cheap labor, raw materials, and low
cost parts. However, now their competitive edges include not only reasonable costs, but also
much improved quality as well as advanced technologies producing fuel-efficient
automobiles. Korean companies basically try to carry their vendors, subcontractors wherever
they go. This enables them to show how they value their importance in every small thing
they do. Now Korea is planning to sign a FTA (free trade agreement) with the US
government which would allow them sell their products more in the US markets. The Korean
automobile industry expects their sales to increase to about $1 billion in three years once the
STRENGTH
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FTA is signed. The FTA with the US should provide a great opportunity for Korean
automobile companies to move to the next level of their business operations. It will open up
the US markets more freely to them. These are some strengths the Korean automobile
industry possesses.
WEAKNESS
The Korean automobile industrys most serious weakness is strong movements by
hard labor unions in Korea. The labor union movements are generally very strong and hostile
especially in the Korean automobile industry, which hurt not only those companies business,
but also the Korean economy seriously. There has been no single year in the last eleven years
without labor unions strikes in the Korean automobile industry. It looks like an annual event,
shutting down many plants among all those large automobile companies in Korea for a long
time every year. The next one is that there are highly unexpected fluctuations of the value of
the Korean currency, which would affect their exports and imports. The uncertainty
regarding the value of the Korean won makes Korean companies vulnerable in their
international markets. Since most Korean companies rely heavily on foreign sales, their
operations and production are affected significantly by the value of their currency. Another
weakness is the lack of brand awareness worldwide. For example, customers in major
international markets, especially in the US markets, see Hyundai, the largest Korean
automobile manufacturer, still as a cheap automobile producer. They still have a perception
that Korean made automobiles are cheap ones. In other words, Korean automobile
companies are generally known as cheap producers. Even though they are transforming their
companies to quality manufacturers, the brand awareness is not yet strong in the market. So,
high brand awareness will be a key for the future, and it is one of the most serious problems
Korean automobile companies must try to solve sooner for their long run benefits.
The opportunities available for the Korean automobile companies are the rising
demands of Korean automobiles in many new markets which will help Korean companies
improve their global market shares. More exactly, a promising opportunity for Korean
companies exists in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) markets as well as
in India, Brazil and Russia with the increasing demand of especially small cars with excellent
fuel efficiency. This will lead them to build products with high fuel efficiency. Even in the
US market with high fuel costs now, the demands of those fuel-efficient small cars are
significantly being increased. The Korean automobile companies are very strong especially
in this market segment with all technical, economical advantages for producing such small
cars. This is one of the reasons why Korean automobile companies sales are significantly
increased while many rival companies sales are dropped recently in the global markets
overall. Developing new technologies for fuel efficiency and green cars and competing
against the current global market leaders now shows the Korean companies resilience to be
on top of its game through implementing a successful business strategy and to be capable of
building a string of high class products which makes those companies compete against their
rivals successfully in the global markets.
THREATS
OPPORTUNITIES
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The Japanese automobile industry, one of the biggest rivals to the Korean industry,
still remains as one of Koreas prime threats. The technology gap in some core items
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especially for luxury cars between Korean and Japanese (as well as European) companies
would be a main threat in the future. Korean auto manufacturers are still finding it hard to
bring luxury cars to competition against those global leaders. Hyundai brought Genesis
which offers more luxury for the price, but could not sell as many as they expected in those
high-end markets so far. The Japanese trio of luxury, Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura, are very
strong in those global luxury car markets. The European trio, Mercedes, BMW, and Audi,
are heavily demanded globally. This gives a big threat to Korean manufacturers in expanding
their business to luxury product lines. Also as gas prices rise continuously with the
exhaustion of fuel resources in the world, global leaders are spending more resources in their
research for developing vehicles with other kind of fuels. So, Korean companies should do
more research for bio-fuels or any alternatives with renewable sources of energy. Since the
other global manufacturers have already introduced new vehicles for the next generation
successfully, such as hybrid vehicles and electric cars, the Korean automobile industry should
conduct more research for developing those types of new technologies and vehicles. This
will be another threat to the Korean automobile industry.
The following chart shows the SWOT analysis of the Korean automobile industry
discussed above.
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
Price competitiveness in terms of highly

skilled workers, low cost parts and
materials
Brand Awareness
Diversified export markets
Immature parts and raw materials

industry
OPPORTUNITIES
Aggressive
marketing
THREATS
The weak and the fluctuating Korean
Won
Saturated domestic market
Successful launches on site production

Geographical proximity to Chinese
markets
Labor Union Issues
High dependency on exports i.e.,

overseas market
Rise of other Asian manufacturers
Potential market for ASEAN
The auto parts industry is another important industry, which is critical in

manufacturing quality automobiles. The growth of the automobile industry in a country
depends largely on the quality of auto parts produced in the country. It is critical for a nation
which would like to develop a strong automobile manufacturing industry to have a reliable
auto parts industry. So, analyzing business climate of the auto parts industry is a key for
understanding how to develop a world-class auto industry with sustainable growth in a
country. As mentioned earlier in this paper, Korean automobile manufacturers usually take
most of their major suppliers wherever they go in the world. It is very important for
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countries
Technology
to advanced
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF AUTO PARTS INDUSTRY
INgap
KOREA
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automobile manufacturers to have reliable suppliers near by their plants for many competitive
reasons. In the last two decades, Korean governments and large automobile companies, such
as Hyundai and Kia, have invested a lots in developing reliable, high-quality auto parts and
sub-assembles with technical supports from many research institutions and academic
organizations. Many of Korean auto suppliers are now producing high-quality parts not only
for their domestic auto makers, but also other world-class makers in the world. Actually,
according to the recent data, the Korean auto parts industry now outgrows the Korean
automobile manufacturing industry. Especially after the global financial crisis in 2008, many
auto parts producers in other countries, such as Japan and the USA, went bankrupt due to low
demands of their products. However, Korean auto parts producers are enjoying great
businesses as the Korean automobile companies are breaking their sales records every year.
Furthermore, also those global leading auto makers, including Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes,
GM and Ford, have decided to buy more parts from Korea instead of China since they
couldnt trust the quality of Chinese made parts with some serious quality problems they had
with those parts from China used in their products.
PORTERS FIVE FORCES
The Porters competitive analysis model with Five Forces is a framework which
describes about the environment surrounding an industry. The Five Forces are: the threats
of entry, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of the buyer, threats by
substitutes, and the intense rivalries from the competitors.
Below is the diagram which shows Porters five forces for the Korean auto parts
industry.
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Also there is a threat in terms of the substitutes. When there is a new product which
can substitute existing products, it would have a big impact on the market. For example,
hybrid and fuel cell vehicles are becoming popular globally and are growing as the time goes
by with the steady rise of gasoline price. As everyone knows about the exhaustion of oil
resources and the skyrocketing price of oil now in the world, there is an imminent chance of a
substitute rolling out soon. This should also be considered in the Porters competitive
analysis here for the Korean auto parts industry.
In the auto parts industry, Korean manufacturers are in a difficult position in the
global markets because of Chinese competitors. China has been dominant in this industry for
the last few years, and it is very hard for other countries to enter in this industry and compete
against the Chinese producers. They used to be a big barrier for Korean manufacturers to
enter in this business. Also the rise in prices of raw materials plays an important role in
determining the bargaining power of suppliers. It is true in marking to say the bigger the
orders the better the price is. The same thing goes with the buyer too. The bargaining
power of buyer is determined by a big volume order and increased cooperation. For this
reason, Chinese manufacturers can enjoy their competitive advantages over other competitors.
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Threats of entry
Rise of China, Strong
foreign large scale
competitors from US,
Japan, and Germany
o
Suppliers
Bargaining Power
Rise in price of raw
materials
Rivalries
New entry of
potential
suppliers,
Economic cond.
Buyers Bargaining
Power
Big Volume Order,
Increased Cooperation
Threat by Substitutes
New types of vehicles,
Technology Integration
The Korean auto industry is one of the most flourishing industry in the world right
now. It has been doing wery well with the steep competition against the global leaders from
Germany, Japan, and USA. It has also reacted well to challenges from other new competitors
from Asian countries, mainly from China. In spite of severe competion and tough challenges
in the global markets, which gives serious threats to the Korean automobile companies,
overall the Korea automobile companies have done outstanding jobs so far, and are taking a
right direction to the future with ambitious but attainable goals based on well-calculated
aggressive strategies.
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CONCLUSIONS
According to the diagramabove, the Korean auto parts industry still has an excellent
chance of becoming a global leader in this industry since there are more advantages than
disadvantages or barriers. Obviously, the positive side of its business climate outweighs the
negative side. Actually, many experts and scholars say that the Korean auto parts industry
has more and better opportunities than the Korean automobile manufacturers for being a
global leader based on all their analyses. Also, many business predictions support those
experts and scholars claim, saying that high potential of sales increase will exist in the auto
parts industry compared to the automobile manufacturing industry all over the world. Less
competition will be expected in the auto parts industry while there will be more competition
in the global automobile manufacturing industry in a near future.
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The Chinese economy has grown dramatically for the last twenty years, and without any
doubt it will be continued for a while. This should be not only a great opportunity, but also a
big threat to the Korean automobile industry. The booming economy in China will provide
bigger Chinese markets to Korean companies. Hyundai and Kia are doing very well in China
now, and there will be no reasons why they cannot continue such success in China in the
future. However, at the same time, the strong Chinese economy will help China develop its
own automobile industry with many other related industries developed well. Furthermore,
with its strong economic power, the Chinese automobile industry will threatened the Korean
automobile industry more seriously in the future based on its national industrial policies and
huge domestic markets more favorable for its own domestic companies. However, most of
Korean automobile companies are still and will be for a while competitive especially again
those Chinese companies since Korean companies are still in a much better position with
several competitive edges in key areas, such as design, engine, and electronics, and it is very
hard for Chinese companies to catch up in those areas in a short time period.
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Overall it is fair to say that the Korean automotive industry has achieved lots of positive
recognition in the global markets, and overcome barriers that at one point may not have seen
reasonable to attain. At the same time, it is also true to say that it is not easy to become the
global leader in the global automobile industry, but by taking the appropriate steps based on
the SWOT analysis as well as competitive analysis, it should be attainable to become a global
leader in the markets all over the world. Economically, it was not easy at all for the Korean
automobile industry to position itself as one of the fastest growing competitors in the global
markets and become the worlds fifth largest producer today. It is remarkable to think back
of how it used to be and see how it has been transformed into a leader in the global markets in
a short time period. The Korean automobile industry may not be the absolute top leader now,
but if it continues to make strides in the future as it has done in the past, it should not come as
Most of Korean automobile companies will firmly remain competitive in China as well
as other major markets in the world, while they still have room to be advanced further with its
invaluable supports from other industries Korea has strongly in the global markets, such as
steel, electronics, information technology and chemical industry. Overall Korea is now very
dynamic and competitive globally especially after the global financial crisis in 2008 because
it has well-diversified, strong and competitive industries in many areas. Korea is now well
known economically with its world-class industries, such as shipbuilding, electronics, petrochemical, information technology, and steel industry. For example, producing the next
generation fuel-efficient automobiles generally depends more on such high-tech industries,
including information technology and electronics, than the traditional heavy industries.
Absolutely, Korea has competitive edges over China and many other countries in those hightech areas now. It will not be changed in a short time period since it takes a while to upgrade
the structure of national economy based more on high-tech industries. Also, the China
automobile industry needs more time to improve quality of auto parts, enhance supply chain
management as well as marketing and so on. More importantly, China needs more
technologies and experience of developing its own models of vehicles with advanced design
capacity. Especially the design capacity with own models is the most difficult area to
develop and advance in manufacturing automobiles. The Korean automobile industry will do
much better performances than the Chinese in this critical area for a while. The Chinese
automobile industry could develop its design capacity with its financial supports from its
government. But still it will take a while to introduce its own models of reliable quality
automobiles to the global markets.
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a surprise when it knocks out other competitors from the top spot sooner or later. The Korean
automobile industry is providing each and every year they have what it takes to be a leader.
It has the capabilities to become the dominant power in the global markets. It just needs to
make sure that it has a strategic plan, which was developed by reflecting all competitive
advantages and edges from the SWOT analysis as well as the competitive analysis, to allow
the Korean industry to keep succeeding continuously.
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ZENITH

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

THE RISE OF KOREAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY:

The automobile industry is generally considered as an important measure to gauge the

technology-intensive industry, lots of different technologies developed in other industries can

NEW CAR DEVELOPMENT

Manufacturing processes in the automobile industry was pioneered by Henry Ford

Korea is predominantly strong in manufacturing automobiles. The automobile

Price competitiveness in terms of highly

Diversified export markets

Immature parts and raw materials

Successful launches on site production

Labor Union Issues

High dependency on exports i.e.,

Potential market for ASEAN

The auto parts industry is another important industry, which is critical in

Gao, J.X., Manson, B.M., and Kyratsis, P. (2000) Implementation of Concurrent

Lee, C.Y. (1992) The Adoption of Japanese Manufacturing Management Techniques in

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