Strong Showing
by Machinery Industry

Expects mechatronics industry to be a futuristic growth engine

Korea posted $1.82 billion worth of exports of general machinery like tools, molds and grinding machines during January of this year, a 21 percent surge over the same month last year.
Influenced by unfavorable three highs ― crude oil price hikes, a surge of the Korean currency and raw material price hikes ― Korea's mainstay exports items like mobile handsets and automobiles has registered slower growth rates, while machinery exports have shown signs of remarkable growth.
The general machinery sector raked in a $350 million trade surplus during the first two months of this year, accounting for 70 percent of Korea's total trade surplus standing at $500 million during the same period. The feat of the general machinery sector is owed to a remarkable stride made by the mechatronics industry, a combination of mechanics and electronics.
Korea recorded a 52.9 billion trade surplus during the period between 1988 and 2003, where the domestic general machinery field suffered a 105.7 billion trade deficit.
The general machinery industry caused a headache to policymakers due to chronic and weak economic and structural constitution as the nation posted a whopping $200 billion machinery imports.
Things have changed, however. Last year saw $22.2 billion machinery exports to register a $4.3 billion trade surplus in the sector. Korea's general machinery trade surplus is projected to grow to $6.5 billion during this year, making the machinery sector a field contributing to the local economy.
Lee Jae-yoon, managing director at Doosan Infracore Co., said it seems like a miracle that Korea, with a 40-year history of industrialization, is on a par with giants, Germany and Japan, boasting of 100 to 200 years of industrialization. Take a look at the chronology of the Korean machinery sector. Koreans were amazed at the test-operation of a rice straw bag-knitting machine in 1953. Fifty years later in 2003, Korea exported a 1 trillion won desalination plant.
Korea once solicited foreign engineers for the technology for making even nails or bearings. The days have been gone, and now, it was KPF, a Chungji-based Korean company, that supplied bolts and nuts for the high-strength steel skeleton of the state-of-the-art Bronco Stadium dedicated in Denver, Colo. in 2005.
Hwacheon, a Gwangju-based machinery maker, has exported machine tools to a parts maker of the German carmaker BMW.
Dr. Park Cheon-hong, researcher at Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, said Korea can take a chance to challenge its entry into the global top three in such key areas as machine tool sector within 10 years. He noted that the machinery sector is dubbed as a "other industry,"and the local mechatronics industry has made strides, riding on a strong showing by such sectors as automobiles, semiconductor, mobile handsets and electronic home appliances.
Park Yang-woo, vice chairman of Korea Association of Machinery Industry, said all machineries tend to evolve into the mechatronics industry, and Korea's prospects for making the most of its strength in the IT sector would be bright and it could serve as a futuristic growth engine. nw

(Clockwise) The first rice straw bag-weaving machine introduced in Korea in 1953 "A Demonstration of the first cultivator developed in 1962 " Korea's first manual lathe in 1959 (above) & NC lathe in 1977 "A the first injection molder in Korea 's The first fabric weaving loom in Korea 's The first ship-engine & industrial engine ' Turbine assembly for Korean-made power plant