The Top 5 Mining and Manufacturing Groups Account for 30%... Continued Concentration in Large Corporations

The concentration phenomenon among the top 5 groups in domestic mining and manufacturing industries remains unchanged. It was found that 39 industries, including automobile, semiconductor, and alcoholic beverage manufacturing, are experiencing intensified monopolistic dominance by a few companies.

According to the Fair Trade Commission's survey results on the "Monopoly Status in the Mining and Manufacturing Sectors Based on 2021," announced on the 7th, the shipment value of large business groups in this sector accounted for 48.8% of the total. This is an increase of 2.9 percentage points compared to the previous year (45.9%). Shipment value refers to the total amount generated from products directly manufactured or processed by businesses combined with contract manufacturing import amounts.

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Among these, the top 5 business groups (Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG, and Lotte Group) accounted for 30.2%. The shipment value share of the 6th to 76th business groups was only 18.6%. The Fair Trade Commission diagnosed, "The shipment value ratio of the top 5 business groups is higher than that of the 6th to 76th groups, indicating that the concentration toward the top business groups remains significant."

Based on 2021 data, 52 industries, including semiconductor, automobile, and mobile phone manufacturing, maintained a monopolistic structure, an increase of one industry compared to the previous year. Three new industries were added: newsprint manufacturing, biological sterilization, pesticide and plant protection product manufacturing, and cutlery manufacturing, while carbon fiber manufacturing and steelmaking were excluded. Among these, 39 industries have been classified as maintaining monopolistic status for five consecutive times since 2011, indicating a solidified degree of monopoly.

The average shipment value of the 52 industries maintaining a monopolistic structure was 305 billion KRW, more than nine times larger than the average of other industries at 34 billion KRW. The research and development (R&D) ratio of industries maintaining monopolistic structures was 1.1%, lower than the overall mining and manufacturing average of 1.3%. Industries such as aircraft, semiconductor, and LCD manufacturing significantly exceeded the overall average (8.3% to 4.0%), while industries like alcoholic beverages and sugar manufacturing were below 0.1%, ranging from 0.09% to 0.0%, showing large variations by industry.

The Fair Trade Commission stated, "Based on these survey results, we will strictly respond by preparing improvement measures for monopolistic market structures where necessary and strengthening monitoring of unfair market practices."

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