INDUSTRIAL POWERHOUSE CHUNGNAM PROVINCE

Chungnam Province, just adjacent to Daejeon Metropolitan City, is a region that stands out in the Asian economy as a provider of critical components and finished products for all of Asia.

Taking advantage of Korea's cutting edge industrial know-how Chungnam has developed advanced petrochemical and steel production, display technologies and the automotive manufacturing facilities. With a gross regional domestic product of 10.4％, Chungnam is on a par with the hottest spots in China, India and Southeast Asia. Chungnam's trade volume reached 74 billion dollars in 2007 making it a global player in its own right, value substantiated by the ＄11 billion in FDI received since 2002.

In the last two years alone, green field investment in Chungnam reached more than ＄2.5 billion. Sony, Aramco, Photronics, Rohm&Haas, Owens Corning, General Motors, Johnson Controls, Total, Mitsubishi Rayon and TRW are just some of the blue-chip firms that have made substantial investments in Chungnam for a reason.

There are also big plans for low-cost, spacious, housing, international schools and state-of-the-art hospitals in the Yellow Sea Free Economic Zone.

Chungnam has four core industries all within a 100-kilometer parameter-and right next to the modern port of Dangjin shipping directly to the high-growth markets of China and Asia-that complement each other and provide a unique ecosystem to support advanced manufacturing enterprises: petrochemicals, steel production, display technologies and automobiles and auto parts.

Petrochemicals and Steel

Samsung Total Petrochemical Cluster in Daejeon

The Daesan Petrochemical cluster in Chungnam, one of the largest in the world, produces plastics and petroleum products that drive the entire Northeast Asian economy. Oil shipped by Korea's legendary logistic network from the Middle East is processed here first using advanced naphtha cracking processes. Present investors in the petrochemical cluster include Total of France, IPIC of Abu Dhabi, CEPSA of Spain, Mitsubishi Rayon of Japan and Aramco of Saudi Arabia. Considerable expansion of capacity is planned for the near future.

Hyundai Steel's Dangjin Factory

The Dangjin steel production cluster has made headlines for its commitment to next-generation production essential to robust growth in the IT and automotive sectors. Dangjin supplies Korea, China and the world with high quality materials for fabrication. Dongbu Steel boasts the world's first fully automated steel processing from production to distribution at its Asan Bay Works, producing steel components for automotive, electronics and construction. Hyundai Steel is the second largest producer of EAF steel and boasts the world's most efficient plant. When combined with the Hyundai Automotive Group, this makes for the only integrated steel mill to car production cluster in the world. Japan's Nikko Metal and France's Affival and Air Liquide are invested here.

Samsung Electronics Cheonan Factory

The twin cities of Cheonan & Asan, Korea's Legendary "Crystal Valley," are the production center for the next generation of high-value displays. Some 50% of Korea's exports of displays come from this region (claiming 14% of world market, concentrated on top-of-the-line flat panel displays). Currently planned factory expansions will make the Cheonan-Asan area the largest production center for displays in the world. The factories of Samsung Electronic, Samsung SDI, LG and Sony here in Chungnam will launch the next generation of displays, such as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays for low-power consumption as well as displays with flexible back planes and electronic paper displays.

Headquarters of Hyundai Automotive and KIA Motors

Korea is world's fifth-largest automobile producer, and has increased its market share in both automobiles and automobile parts at an exponential rate over the last decade. The Seosan and Asan Regions of Chungnam are central to the automotive sector in Korea. Here you will find such titans as Hyundai Motor Company, KIA Motors, GM Daewoo, Johnson Controls, WFC and KATECH.