Jeong Manki, Vice Chairman of Muhyeop, "Key to Supply Chain Crisis: Development of Strategic Assets like Semiconductors"

Martial Arts, '3rd Trade Industry Forum' Held
'Global Supply Chain Restructuring and Korea's Response' Theme

Jung Manki, Vice Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, delivers the opening address at the '3rd Trade Industry Forum' hosted by KITA at Trade Tower in Samseong-dong on the 23rd. (Photo by KITA)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Jeong Manki, Vice Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), emphasized on the 23rd that it is important to secure strategic assets that foreign countries inevitably depend on and diversify supply sources as a measure to hedge supply chain risks.

Vice Chairman Jeong made these remarks at the '3rd Trade Industry Forum' hosted by KITA at the Trade Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, in the afternoon, under the theme of 'Global Supply Chain Restructuring and Korea's Response.'

Jeong diagnosed, "With the electrification of power, the demand for nickel, lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, and others is rapidly increasing, and digital transformation is boosting demand for semiconductors and related materials and equipment, making the smooth supply of key raw materials crucial enough to determine the future of each country."

He added, "Most minerals related to electrification are concentrated in China," and predicted, "China is even taking control of overseas mines such as cobalt, making the world's dependence on China, including ours, and the resulting supply instability inevitable."

He continued, "Recently, as prices of core minerals have surged, 70% of the profit from our anode material sales is attributed to China, which supplies the raw materials."

Vice Chairman Jeong urged, "We should actively promote overseas resource development or take the lead in multilateral consultative bodies such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) to diversify supply chains."

He also stated, "By continuously developing core materials or components, such as semiconductors, on which Korea's dependence is inevitable, we must secure competitive advantages and enhance our bargaining power with other countries," and urged, "We need to expand research and development (R&D) on strategic assets like semiconductors and improve R&D productivity."

Cho Sanghyun, Director of the Global Supply Chain Analysis Center at KITA, presented in his keynote speech the following countermeasures for global supply chain restructuring: ▲ diversification of import sources ▲ energy transition for carbon neutrality ▲ protection of advanced technologies and expansion of investment ▲ prompt enactment and revision of the three supply chain laws.

He said, "To reduce high dependence on China for import source diversification, tailored support should be provided by selecting strategies such as 'China Exit,' 'China+1,' and 'In-China for China' according to the characteristics of each industry."

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