“There has never been a report that summarizes our country’s industry so well. I think it’s the best report ever.”
This is an evaluation made by an economics YouTuber regarding the ‘Korea’s major manufacturing production and supply chain map’ recently announced by the Bank of Korea. This YouTuber reviewed this report, which detailed the production, export, and import of major domestic industries such as semiconductors and displays, and said, “It’s like looking at the Daedongyeojido.”
A post on the Bank of Korea’s blog covering this report, which was highly praised by a YouTuber, exceeded 25,000 views within 10 days of being posted. Since the Bank of Korea opened the blog last year, saying it would introduce the announcement in a more friendly way, it has become one of the most read posts.
Semiconductors are in the metropolitan area, automobiles are in the southeastern area.This report was published on the 25th of last month by the Regional Economy Department of the Bank of Korea’s Research Bureau. It consists of information on production status by region, export of products by country and product, and import of materials, parts, and equipment required for production, targeting 11 major manufacturing industries in Korea, including semiconductors and automobiles. In particular, it is characterized by the use of large graphs and images rather than stiff text.
Regarding production, the production share and major factories by region were displayed on the map based on the 2021 mining and manufacturing industry survey. The locations of domestic companies’ factories and products produced (as of May 2023) were also recorded. Exports were presented by visualizing the export status of major products by country and product based on 2022 trade statistics.
Imports focused on imports of materials, parts, and equipment needed for manufacturing production, and presented a list of import items by country and highly dependent on specific countries. The explanation is that the goal was to identify potential paths through which domestic production would be affected when a global supply chain disruption occurs.
Looking at the contents of the report prepared in this way by industry, the domestic production share of semiconductor companies was found to be 80.7% in the metropolitan area. This is because the main production plants of Samsang Electronics and SK Hynix are located in Gyeonggi-do. Including the metropolitan area and the adjacent Chungcheong area’s share (15.8%), the two areas accounted for 96.5% of domestic semiconductor production.
Semiconductor exports to China had the highest share at 53.1%. As of last year, exports to China amounted to $75.8 billion out of $142.7 billion. This was followed by Vietnam (11.4%), the United States (9.6%), and Taiwan (9.0). The export proportion of memory items such as memory chips (43.3%), SSD (9.4%), and DRAM modules (8.4%) was high.
Imports of semiconductor materials and components showed the greatest dependence on China at 23.1%. Japan (21.4%) and the United States (17.0%) also had high proportions.
In the automobile industry, production plants were evenly distributed throughout the country. It was revealed that the southeastern region (40.8%) and the metropolitan area (33.5%), where major production plants of Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors are located, serve as central production bases. Automobile exports amounted to $54.1 billion last year, which was larger than domestic sales. By country, the US had the highest export share (41.1%), followed by Canada (6.1%), Australia (6.0%), the UK (4.1%), and Germany (3.2%).
The booklet pointed out that although domestic sales of electric vehicles were growing rapidly last year, their global competitiveness was not high. Last year, domestic sales of electric vehicles (including hydrogen vehicles) accounted for 10.4% and exports accounted for 15.1%, growing rapidly, but Hyundai Motor Group’s global sales share was ranked 7th and its competitiveness compared to internal combustion engine vehicles was assessed to be relatively low.
The most read BOK blog posts are:As of 3 p.m. on the 5th, the Bank of Korea’s blog post, in which managers Young-cheol Jeong and Ye-rim Lee of the Regional Research Support Team introduced the contents of this booklet, was read by 25,757 people. This is more than twice as high as most BOK blog posts, which only receive around 10,000 views. It is believed that this was due to the YouTuber’s inclusion of a link to this blog post in the video.
This is the second highest number of views among메이저사이트 the 74 posts written by the Bank of Korea since launching the blog in May last year. The first post written by Director of Monetary Policy Hong Kyung-sik, ‘Background to the Bank of Korea’s base interest rate increase in May 2022’, received over 27,000 views . It is understood that it is currently ranked first. The number of views for the ‘Manufacturing Production and Supply Chain Map’ post is increasing rapidly, so it is expected to rise to first place in the near future.
The Bank of Korea opened a new blog after Lee Chang-yong took office as Governor of the Bank of Korea last year in order to convey the contents of the stiff report in a more friendly manner. The background to the Bank of Korea’s base rate decision, factors causing inflation, and reasons for the economic outlook are conveyed in detail in simple language, and analysis of market interest rates and the foreign exchange market is also introduced.
Next to the 1st and 2nd ranked posts, posts mainly related to investment have a high number of views. The Financial Markets Bureau and the International Bureau, which are in charge of interest rates and foreign exchange, are leading the way.
In August of last year, ‘Main features of recent changes in short- and long-term interest rate differentials’ (24,497 times) written by Gong Dae-hee, then head of the bond market team at the Financial Markets Department (hereinafter his position as of the date of writing), by Park Seong-jin, head of the bond market team at the Financial Markets Department, Deputy Director Choi Kang-wook, and Manager Koo Byeong-soo. More than 20,000 people viewed the article ‘Understanding the recent treasury bond interest rate and base rate reversal’ (22,118 times) written last March.
‘International Comparison of Won/Dollar Exchange Rate Volatility and Rate of Change’ (17,920 times) by Researcher Eun-hye Yoo of the International Finance Research Team, International Department, ‘Background of the recent increase in foreign direct investment and its impact on the foreign exchange sector’ by Managers Hye-jin Park and Joo-eun Ahn of the Capital Movement Analysis Team of the International Department (17,764 times) were also popular.