Korea lags peer nations in robot industry

South Korea’s competitiveness in the robot industry is among the world’s lowest even though the country is one of the largest buyers of robots, according to a Sept. 15 report on Korea’s influence in the global robot industry issued by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), a business lobby group.

The global industrial and services robot market reached $24.3 billion as of 2020, of which the Korean market accounted for 12.3%, the report said.

Korea uses 932 units of robots per 10,000 workers, more than seven times the global average of 126 units. It also exceeds 390 units in Japan, 371 in Germany, 255 in the US and 246 in China.  

But the comprehensive competitiveness of the Korean robot industry was 7.4 on a score of one to 10, lower than Japan’s 9.5, Germany’s 9.3, the US’ 8.4, Switzerland’s 8.3 and China’s 7.5. Korea’s low score comes as it imports a majority of its robot parts from Japan and other countries, the report said.  

In the assessment of robot parts production and procurement capabilities, Korea scored 6.7 while Japan earned 9.8. Korea imports 61% of speed reducers and 65% of sub-motors from Japan, according to the report.

A lot of robotics hardware experts are working in software development in Korea as the country particularly lacks talent in robotics software, the report said. The country’s growth in the robot industry is slower than China's, which provides ample subsidies for robotics R&D and proactively acquires global robotics companies, the report added.

Korea must cut its reliance on component imports, as well as promote specialization of each sector in the robot industry and foster professionals, said Kim Bong-man, FKI's international affairs department head. The government also needs to support industry growth with relevant institutions and regulatory reforms, Kim added in the report.

Write to Sang-Eun Lee at selee@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.