A report has been released indicating that Korea’s automobile production scale has dropped to 7th place in the world. The decline in production scale is attributed to domestic sales falling to 1.63 million units (-6.5%), the lowest since 2013.
On the 10th, the Korea Automobile Mobility Industry Association (KAMA) released a report titled “2024 World Automobile Production Status and Implications,” which stated that global automobile production last year was counted at 93.95 million units, a 0.5% decrease from the previous year. This is the first decline since the sharp drop (-15.4%) in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Among these, Korea’s domestic automobile production recorded a 2.7% decrease from the previous year, with 4.13 million units, resulting in a drop to the 7th position globally. China ranked first, followed by the United States, Japan, India, Germany, and Mexico ahead of Korea in production.
Notably, the ‘Top 4’ countries accounted for 59.7% of total global automobile production. Japan, which experienced issues with quality certifications from companies like Toyota and Honda, saw a significant decrease (-8.5%). Additionally, the production decline in Thailand, where Japanese automobile plants are located, was also high (-20.0%). In Europe, Spain, a manufacturing country, saw a decrease in production (-3.0%).
China produced 31.28 million units, a 3.7% increase from the previous year, maintaining its top position for the 16th consecutive year, aided by government-led domestic stimulation and export promotion policies.
The report stated, “Korea’s automobile industry is threatened by limitations in domestic demand and increased global competition,” and analyzed, “Even if the domestic market shows a recovery trend this year compared to the previous year, the effect of production expansion will not be significant due to limited potential demand.”
It further added, “The strengthening market dominance of China’s industry and the possibility of U.S. tariff imposition this year may act as factors for export reduction.”
The report warned, “If Korea fails to properly respond to these environmental changes, it may be pushed out of the global ‘Top 10’ production countries due to weakened competitiveness,” adding that “This could have a negative impact on the overall upstream and downstream industries, including parts.”