Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mercury]

Poor Korea, being chased by a giant. That giant is getting stronger every day, he is hungry, and soon he will run over S.K! No doubt, China is a steam roller to the economy in South Korea! Are the people worried? The university students are a little concerned, the high school kids have no clue, the younger kids have none at all, but the fathers who work in the steel, ship, and car industries know about the giant! I guess they can drown out the footsteps with soju!




China Catching Up in Steel and Autos

On March 31 the board of China's biggest steelmaker, Baoshan Iron and Steel, passed a long-term development plan that calls for increasing annual output to 50 million tons, which is double its current capacity.
The plan includes an ambitious goal to leapfrog to the world's number two steelmaker spot, past POSCO, currently the world's fourth biggest steelmaker with annual capacity of 31.2 million tons, and displacing the current number two, Nippon Steel, whose capacity is 33.7 million tons.

Strong domestic demand has Baoshan increasing its output of value-added products like automotive steel sheet and stainless steel, which has POSCO worried. Baoshan already has a 51.7 percent share of the Chinese market for automotive steel sheet, with several multinational carmakers in China turning out vehicles made from Baoshan metal.

Besides Baoshan, China is home to four or five more steelmakers that produce nearly as much as POSCO. Companies like T'ang-shan are rapidly gaining on POSCO in terms of quality and price, milling steel that is nearly 90 percent as good as Korean product and more than 10 percent cheaper.

POSCO's strategy for dealing with the challenge is to enhance its price competitiveness by building new mills in India and Vietnam where raw materials are cheaper and more abundant. But POSCO's project in India has run into opposition from unhappy local residents.

Perhaps the biggest threat to POSCO is Arcelor Mittal, which became the world's top steel company through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Now the giant is threatening to seize control of POSCO.

The situation facing Korea's automobile industry is similarly grim. Hyundai and Kia are losing their price edge to Japanese competitors because of the recent strong won, and Chinese carmakers are growing swiftly and are just steps away from exporting to the U.S.

Chery, a Chinese carmaker, ranked number one in sales within China by selling 44,000 cars in March, beating out several rivals funded with foreign capital. The company exported 10,000 self-developed engines last year and is currently looking into selling compacts in the U.S. through DaimlerChrysler.

Like POSCO, Hyundai and Kia are looking abroad to solve their crisis. The car companies are cranking up production at overseas factories, building new plants and beefing up existing ones in the U.S., Europe, China, and India.

Bok Deuk-gyu from the Samsung Economic Research Institute said, "In 10 years, Chinese carmakers will threaten Korean carmakers in the small car sector in newly-emerging markets. To overcome these threats from China, Korean car makers should actively begin producing high quality cars and enhancing brand value."

[Scotticus]

Shouldn't your name be Hermes?

Oh, and shouldn't you address this thread to the entire world, not just Korea? If you think only Korea is going to be affected by Chinese growth, you need to think a little harder.

[darkhorse_NZ]

My grandfather used to say that hordes of PLA soldiers were going to spill out of container ships at the Auckland docks any day now.


I've been scared of China since I first tasted Chicken Chow Mein.

[billybrobby]

It's just silly and alarmist to think that global economics is a zero sum game.

[ttompatz]

What I find amusing is that people start with the alarmist noises about Chinese industries coming into the world market but they ALWAYS fail to notice that the growing DEMAND for global products and RESOURCES in China far outstrips their supply into the global market.

Why do you think the price of steel and oil are so high?

It is certainly not supply side shocks causing the massive rise in commodity prices.

There are 2 huge markets coming into play India and China with a combined population totaling just about 1/2 the people on this planet. As these markets continue to grow they will quickly DEMAND far more commodities than the world can currently supply.

We are NOT all getting smaller pieces of the pie as the alarmists would have you believe. The pie is growing at an almost exponential rate and it would be well for the developed nations to switch and meet the demand.

The problem that WILL occur in places like Japan, Korea, the USA and other developed nations is that they will be unwilling to make the structural changes to meet the global demand. It is easier to complain that car manufacturing is moving to China and India instead of develop new technologies and SELL those commodities to meet the massive demand.

You can't compete with low wages but you can sell high priced technologies and develop commodity based industries again. It was commodities that brought the developed nations to their developed status. The pendulum has swung again.

[Treefarmer]

was talking about this today with my work colleague again, and i've come to the conclusion that just like under every empire ever, the middle classes will adapt, maybe change their lives a bit, and lots of working class people will be fucked. i do think it's all going backwards at the moment in terms of that

people like us teachers who have degrees and some experience of teaching will be ok, we may get a kick of reality and have to go back to working for a living, but we won't starve, neither will the middle class koreans, maybe their honeymoon will be over and they won't all have their own dictionary computers, savings and fly cellphones from age 15, but they will still find work

the people in trouble are the people who are growing rice, or doing unskilled labour, they will probably have to move to china or japan to carry on their shitty jobs cos noone is going to pay them

but living in busan i don't think that the workers are benefitting that much from the 'economic miracle' anyway. the only real change will happen when the working class take power

[Guri Guy]

If Korea can adapt to the changing situation, Korea will be fine. If they insist on a head down, keep charging ahead approach, they will be swamped.

[Tjames426]

i;;bc l

[The_Conservative]