S. Korea remains 5th in global car production: KAMA

S. Korea remains 5th in global car production: KAMA (Yonhap)

South Korea was the fifth-largest country in the world in terms of auto production last year, keeping its rank for the second consecutive year despite the chip shortage-triggered decrease in car manufacturing, data showed Monday.

According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, the country produced some 3.46 million cars, a 1.3 percent decrease from the year before.

KAMA explained that despite a global shortage of semiconductors, South Korea was able to minimize the decrease in output by securing supplies as much as possible and effectively managing its inventory.

The country to produce the most cars was China with 26.8 million, followed by the US with 9.15 million, Japan with 7.84 million and India with 4.39 million.

India, in fact, showed a remarkable 29.6 percent increase in production, making it to fourth, replacing Germany. Germany saw an 8.8 percent drop in output.

Germany had produced only 3.42 million cars, the lowest output since 1975, due to a critical semiconductor shortage in the second half of last year.

Growth of car production worldwide marked 2 percent in 2021, KAMA said, citing the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and a semiconductor shortage as the main causes for limiting quantitative growth.

In the case of China, its car exports grew by more than 100 percent on-year in 2021 as it tried to resolve oversupply.

This, KAMA evaluated, will deepen competition with South Korea as Asia‘s fourth-largest economy heavily relies on exports for its growth.

Electric vehicle production, meanwhile, has increased in China by 13.6 percent and Spain by 9.3 percent with the help of their government support in expanding electric vehicle production, the organization said.

“Countries like China and the US that have a very big domestic market can increase the production of EVs with just some government subsidies. But South Korea, which has a small domestic market, needs much more than (subsidy handouts) such as active corporate investment,” said an official from KAMA.


By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)