Suncheon City Leads Magnesium Materials and Components Industry with World-Class Technology

Forum Held on the 23rd at the National Assembly to Revitalize the Magnesium Materials and Components Industry

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Suncheon City (Mayor Heo Seok) held a National Assembly forum on the 23rd at the National Assembly Members' Office Building to revitalize the magnesium materials and components industry, attended by members of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, related organizations and associations, and corporate officials.

This forum was co-hosted by Lee Hak-young, chairman of the National Assembly Industry and Trade Committee, Song Gap-seok, floor leader, Shin Jeong-hoon, and members of the National Assembly So Byung-chul and Seo Dong-yong, who represent the Suncheon constituency. It was jointly organized by the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Jeonnam Technopark, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Jeollanam-do Province, and Suncheon City, all leading the materials and components industry.

The attending members of the National Assembly, in their congratulatory remarks, recognized the need to develop the Haeryong Industrial Complex in Suncheon City, which possesses world-class technology and produces and supplies automotive sheet metal, into a hub for the magnesium materials and components industry. They pledged to spare no effort in institutional improvements and budget support to revitalize the industry.

The magnesium materials and components industry painted a rosy picture, with a national budget of 300 billion KRW to be invested in the Haeryong Industrial Complex centered on automotive magnesium sheet metal factories, as promised by the President.

However, due to low technological maturity and limited demand, commercialization has stalled. Eventually, as POSCO pursued the sale of its magnesium sheet metal business, the magnesium materials and components cluster project failed the preliminary feasibility study and was shelved.

Nevertheless, Suncheon City, recognizing the high potential growth of the magnesium materials and components industry, has continuously maintained cooperative relationships with the Korea Institute of Materials Science, Jeonnam Technopark, and others. It secured 15.5 billion KRW for the construction of the Magnesium Commercialization Support Center and is promoting it as a four-year project from this year through 2024.

Alongside this, efforts are underway to regain momentum by establishing cooperative systems with domestic magnesium materials and components companies and overseas organizations and associations.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere began to turn around when the investment company Pine Tree Partners acquired POSCO's magnesium sheet metal factory.

While POSCO had focused on R&D investment in core technologies and secured world-class technology, based on that technological foundation, Pine Tree POS Magnesium Co., Ltd. (hereinafter ‘PPM’) is striving to discover new demand markets.

After successfully applying magnesium sheet metal to Porsche car roofs in the past, PPM is currently jointly conducting government projects with German Volkswagen for expanded application. PPM’s magnesium sheet metal has also been officially adopted as demonstration material in the automotive lightweighting project of USAMP (United States Automotive Materials Partnership), a joint research consortium of US automakers GM, Ford, and Fiat-Chrysler, indicating that the era of magnesium-centered green mobility is drawing closer.

According to Jeonnam Technopark, the implementing agency of the commercialization support project, out of 70 domestic magnesium materials and components companies, 50 have expressed willingness to participate, and among them, 12 companies will join the magnesium commercialization project starting this year.

This project plans not only to purchase equipment but also to support commercialization technologies that companies find challenging, linking this support to the discovery of demand markets.

With the importance of the materials and components industry rising due to Japanese export restrictions, the Korea Institute of Materials Science, which was promoted to an independent research institute from the Korea Machinery Research Institute on the 20th, is leading domestic magnesium materials development such as magnesium alloys. It is spearheading the establishment of the Global Magnesium Research Center and has expressed its ambition to actively support commercialization through domestic corporate technology support and cooperation with overseas institutions.

Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated that if the magnesium materials and components industry is revitalized centered on Suncheon, policy support will be spared to make it the world’s best hub.

Mayor Heo Seok of Suncheon said, “Through this forum, we diagnosed the current level of the magnesium materials and components industry centered on domestic related organizations and companies such as the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials. We plan to support domestic companies’ technical difficulties, secure price competitiveness, discover global demand markets, and complete the magnesium materials and components ecosystem centered on Suncheon’s Haeryong Industrial Complex, thereby creating the world’s best magnesium materials and components hub.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.