한국 조선산업의 발전역사와 미래과제

The Korean Shipbuilding Industries: Retrospect and Prospect

Korean government fostered shipbuilding as a national strategic industry to boost the country's economy in the early 1960s. In response to this, Korean shipbuilders such as Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries etc., established the relevant facilities and capacity on numerous occasions from the early 1970s. Based on the established infrastructure, South Korea became a leading manufacturer of ships including oil tankers and oil-drilling platforms during the 1970s and 1980s. After declining the industry from the mid-80s, the Korea shipping industry began to rebounce in the early 90s mainly because of replacement of outdated ships in the world fleets and the devaluation of Korean currency in the middle of the financial crisis. It was in 2000s that country surpassed Japan in the field and obtained the title of 'the world's largest shipbuilding nation,' and enjoyed unprecedented shipbuilding golden days in 2007& 2008. In the aftermath of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, however, Korean shipbuilders experienced the acute pain of sharp decline as the global economy fell into a recession again. Since then, China has replaced Korea as the shipbuilding leader. In this present paper, I briefly retrace the developmental process of the nation's shipbuilding industry and propose some strategies for future development, specifically how to gain back its No. 1 position in the shipbuilding sector.