Invest KOREA

The Korean machinery industry maintains price competitiveness and is linked to related industries, such as automobiles, aviation, shipbuilding, semiconductors, and displays.

As of 2020, Korea was the world's third largest semiconductor equipment market, with a market size of USD 16.08 billion. The production of precision processing equipment reached USD 4 billion (No. 6 in the world) with exports of USD 1.8 billion (No. 7 in the world). The manufacturing system supply capacity is expected to be further strengthened following the expansion of smart factories in Korea’s key industries.
※ Precision processing equipment refers to the machine tool industry. It includes all machines used for cutting and plastic working among various manufacturing methods.

The machinery industry is a core industry of Korea that ranks No. 6 in terms of production value, No. 1 in terms of the number of businesses, No. 3 in terms of the number of employees, and No. 4 in terms of added-value, among the manufacturing industries.

Foreign investment in machinery is centered on general machinery and machine tools, and it showed a decrease in 2019 compared to the previous year.

Lam Research, a US-based world-class semiconductor equipment maker, decided to completely relocate its R&D center to Korea in 2019. It is expected to actively promote collaboration and joint development with domestic material, parts, and equipment companies.

In 2021, ASML of the Netherlands, the only supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure equipment necessary for the production of wafers under 10 nanometers, announced its plan to invest in a training center and remanufacturing center for engineers in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do. It is a high-tech equipment field that will play a key role in the K-semiconductor belt.

The Korean government announced its plan to designate specialized complexes for materials, parts, and equipment in February 2021. The Gyeongnam region is designated as a specialized complex in the precision machinery sector, and the global supply chain of the machinery industry will be strengthened.

The Korean government announced the 2021 Intelligent Robot Implementation Plans in April 2021. It is expected to respond to social needs (e.g. population decline, improvement of the quality of life) following the spread of collaborative robots, accelerate the digitalization of all industries by using robots, improve policies preemptively, and create an environment for using robots based on the evidence base. The manufacturing industry has drawn attention following the Enforcement of the Act on Special Measures to Strengthen the Competitiveness of the Materials, Components and Equipment Industry announced by the Korean government in April 2020. The strong will of the Korean government to foster industrial robots is expected to revitalize the country's machinery industry.

The Korean government has drawn up the 3rd Intelligent Robot Basic Plan (2019-2023) in August 2019. Seven bases for testing/certification, demonstration, and corporate support were established, and a regulatory sandbox system was introduced through the revision of the Industry-Academia Convergence Promotion Act.

As of 2019, 63.8% of all operators in the Korean machinery industry were located in the metropolitan area and Gyeongnam. The Gyeongnam machinery industry, in particular, recorded the second highest proportion of the total domestic machinery industry with 14.3%.